THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

Hare  Book  Room 
GIFT  OF 

John  W,  Becknum 


University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 


3Bj>  tjic  Stottjor  of 

WREATHS    AND    BRANCHES     FOR    THE     CHURCH 
,    "  CONSECRATED    TALENTS  ;';    ETC. 

C  G^c^W  -T,  ^>/v«Y(T 


Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart ;  for  they  mall  see  Qod.' 


Etiittott. 


NEW  YOKK:  c- 

GENERAL  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  S.  S.  UNION 
AND  CHURCH  BOOK  SOCIETY, 

762    BROADWAY. 

1870. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  CongreM,  in  the  year  1813, 

BY  JOHN  W.  MITCHELL, 

(M  Treasurer  of  The  Gen.  Frot.  Epis.  S.  S.  Union,  and  Church  Book  Society,) 

IB  the  Clerk'*  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Souther* 

District  of  New  York. 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 


CHAPTER  I. 

VERY  few  children  ever  passed  Mr. 
Foster's  tall  brick  house  without  think 
ing,  "  What  a  gloomy  looking  place !  I 
would  not  live  in  it  for  the  world." 
And  so  it  was  a  dreary  dwelling.  The 
color  had  once  been  dark  red,  but  now 
it  was  a  dingy  brown,  excepting  Jjie 
spots  where  the  paint  had  entirely  worn 
off,  and  the  door  was  almost  black,  with 
a  great  brass  knob  so  high  up  that  no 
child  could  ever  reach  that,  nor  the  huge 
^knocker  above  it.  But  very  few  persons 
ever  went  in  or  out  of  that  desolate  house 


4:  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

but  a  middle-aged  man  and  two  servants, 
for  Mrs.  Foster  had  been  confined  to  her 
bed  for  a  whale  year,  and  her  husband 
was  away  all  day.  The  blinds  were  all 
closed  excepting  a  little  one  in  the  dining 
room,  and  the  two  in  the  chamber  of  the 
sick  lady,  and  sometimes  the  whole  house 
looked  so  quiet  that  passers  by  thought 
that  every  body  in  it  certainly  must  have 
died. 

But  there  xwas  one  bright,  cheerful 
sound  occasionally  heard  in  Mrs.  Foster's 
chamber,  which  she  called  the  "singing 
of  her  nightingale."  I  am  sure  no  other 
bird  would  have  thought  of  raising  its 
voice  in  such  a  dark  place,  for  thick 
green  curtains  shut  out  almost  all  the 
light  that  came  through  the  dingy  blinds 
in  the  day  time,  and,  a*t  night,  the  only 
lamp  was  a  little  taper,  and  a  screen  hid 
that  from  the  weak  eyes  of  the  sufferer. 
The  great  rough-looking  nurse,  Fanny, 


OUR   LITTLE   COMFOET.  5 

though  she.  stepped  very  heavily,  always 
spoke  in  a  whisper,  and  Mr.  Foster  was 
so  deaf  that  no  one  could'  holcl  any  con 
versation  with  him,  for  he  could  hardly 
catch  a  single  word,  and  when  his  poor 
wife  wanted  *"lo  make  him  understand 
anything,  she  had  to  write  on  his  hand 
with  one  of  her  slender,  fingers,  and  that 
she  might  do  so  conveniently,  he  gener 
ally,  when  at  home,  seated  himself  in 
the  big  brown  leather  chair  beside  her 
bed. 

But  though  Mrs.  Foster  called  the 
lively  sound  to  which  we  referred,  the 
singing  of  her  nightingale,  it  was  the 
crowing  of  a  little  baby,  a  sweet  dear 
little  girl,  about  ten  months  old.  Its 
mother  was  so  sick  that  she  could  not 
always  bear  to  have  the  child  in  her 
room,  but  sometimes  Fanny  brought  it 
up  from  the  dark  cellar  kitchen  where 
she  liked  to  stav  so  as  to  chat  with  the 


'6  OUE  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

fat  old  cook,  and  then  the  little  thing 
seemed  like  a  ray  of  sunlight  in  that 
darkened  chamber.  Mrs.  Foster  "had  lost 
four  children,  and  could  hardly  look  at 
the  one  that  was  left  without  a  fear  that 
it  might  be  taken  from  her,  but  she  tried 
to  smile  when  the  bright  little  creature 
was  seated  on  the  bed  by  her  side,  and 
then  Comfort  would  crow  and  laugh  as 
merrily  as  a  bird. 

Perhaps  you  did  not  think  that  Com 
fort  was  the  real  name  of  a  child,  and 
it  is  not  a  very  pretty  one,  but  Mr. 
Foster,  who  doted  on  his  baby,  would 
not  hear  of  her.  being  named  anything 
else. 

She  was  fair  as  a  lily,  with  eyes  the 
color  of  a  Forget-me-not,  and  soft,  golden 
hair,  which  curled  in  funny  little  rings 
all  over  the  top  of  her  head.  "Oh,  if 
she  would  only  say  mama,"  thought 
Mrs.  Foster,  as  she  felt  that  little  soft 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  7 

hand  smoothing  her  own  thin,  pale 
cheek,  while  unintelligible,  but  very 
sweet,  sounds  poured  from-  the  rosy 
lips  of  her  darling.  Then  the  poor 
lady  thought  of  the  time  when  her  lost 
Harry  had  first  lisped  that  word,  and 
how  long  it  was  before  his  sister  Kate 
could  master  it,  and  she  remembered 
how  pleased  the  little  boy  had  been 
with  the  very  corals  which  were  now 
looping  up  Comfort's  sleeves,  and  how 
often  he  had  worn  the  same  white  dress 
which  she  had  on,  and  tears  rolled  out 
on  her  face  and.  wet  the  soft  hands  that 
were  still  feeling  it  so  gently.  But 
Comfort  knew  nothing  of  sorrow,  and 
seldom  cried,  only  when  she  was  a  little 
uneasy  or  thought  it  was  time  that  her 
milk  bottle  should  appear,  so  she  could 
not  know  anything  of  her  mother's  feel 
ings,  and  therefore  she  kept  on  laughing 
and  crowing,  and  putting  her  fingers  al- 


8  OUE  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

most  into  those  wet,  moist  eyes,  till  the 
tears  were  all  dried. 

Now  this  little  baby  never  dreamed 
that  she  was  doing  good  to  anybody  by 
her  cunning  ways,  but  a  young  angel 
could  hardly  have  done  more  to  cheer 
the  heart  of  her  sick  mother.  For  chil 
dren  are,  from  their  birth,  little  mis 
sionaries  sent  to  cheer  and  console  those 
who  are  tired  and  sorrowful.  God  meant 
everybody  in  the  world  to  be  just  as 
happy,  and  so  they  all  would  have  been 
if  no  one  had  ever  sinned,  but  now,  older 
people  are  often  full  of  care  and  sorrow, 
and  therefore  every  child  should  remem 
ber  that  it  is  their  part  to  do  all  in 
their  power  to  gladden  the  hearts  and 
lives  of  their  parents. 

Although  Mr.  Foster  was  so  deaf,  he 
was  not  a  very  old  man,  but  he  was 
odd,  and  many  people  did  not  know 
what  to  make  of  him. 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  9 

He  had  always  lived  in  Canada  till 
about  a  year  before  Comfort  was  born, 
and  then  he  became  so  deaf  that  he  could 
not  practise  his  profession,  and  so  he  left 
his  native  place  and  settled  near  Gran- 
ville.  There  was  no  house  to  let  in  the 
neighborhood  but  the  desolate  looking 
one  that  we  have  described,  and  that 
had  not  been  occupied  for  many  years, 
for  it  was  not  on  any  public  road  and 
was  two  miles  from  the  town.  But  Mrs. 
Foster  had  been  so  saddened  by  the  re 
cent  death  of  her  fourth  child,  that  the 
idea  of  such  a  retired  home  was  very 
welcome,  and  so  the  family  moved  into 
it,  a  few  weeks  after  their  arrival  at 
Granville,  and  before  they  became  ac 
quainted  with  any  of  the  inhabitants. 
Mrs.  Foster  never  went  outside  of  the 
door  till  Comfort  was  born,  and  after 
that,  she  was  too  ill  to  leave  her  bed, 
and  her  husband  did  not  care  about  mak- 


10  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

ing  anything  look  comfortable,  for  since 
he  became  so  deaf,  he  had  been  an  altered 
man.  Before  that  time,  he  was  ambi 
tious,  and  everybody  called  him  a  very 
talented  Jawyer,  but  of  course,  he  could 
no  longer  speak  in  court,  as  he  was  un 
able  to  hear  any  reply  which  might  be 
made  to  what  he  said.  Some  of  his 
friends  wanted  him  to  try  and  use  an 
ear-trumpet,  but  just  from  the  fear  of 
looking  ridiculous,  he  refused  this  assist 
ance  and  determined  that  he  would  never 
plead  another  case. 

It  is  a  strange  idea  for  persons  to  be 
angry  because  God  takes  away  one  of 
those  gifts  which*  He  bestows  upon  them, 
but-  Mr.  Foster  felt  as  if  he  were  really 
injured,  when  he  found  that  this  infir 
mity  was  coming  upon  him,  and  grew 
so  cross  and  peevish  that  it  made  his 
poor  wife  very  unhappy.  Even  the  books 
of  which  he  used  to  be  so  fond,  did  not 


OUR,  LITTLE   COMFORT.  11 

now  seem  to  give  him  any  pleasure,  and 
when  he  came  home  from  the  bank,  where 
he  had  a  situation  which  kept  him  em 
ployed  in  writing,  he  would  often  go  and 
sit  on  the  other  side  of  the  room,  so  that 
Mrs.  Foster  could  not  write  on  his  hand, 
or  find  any  way  of  talking  to  him.  But 
if  while  he  was  indulging  himself  in  one 
of  these  wicked,  sulky  fits,  the  baby  was 
brought  into  the  chamber,  he  immedi 
ately  looked  like  an  entirely  different 
man.  His  big  watch  was  drawn  out  to 
be  shaken  before  the  eyes  of  the  de 
lighted  little  one,  and  he  would  toss  her 
^o  high  in  the  air  that  her  anxious 
mother  sometimes  uttered  f  feeble  cry 
of  alarm,  which  did  'not,  however,  reach 
his  deafened  ear.  He  loved  to  put  her 
on  the  floor  and  let  her  try  her  skill  in 
creeping,  and  before  she  was  eleven 
months  old  Comfort  could  stand  up  by. 
a  chair  and  play  with  a  rattle-box,  which 


12  OUK  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

was  the  whole  extent  of  the   toys  that 
she  possessed. 

A  little  while  after  Comfort  was  born, 
Mrs.  Foster  asked  her  husband  if  he 
would  not  send  for  a  clergyman  from 
Granville  to  come  and  christen  the  child* 
as  she  was  afraid  it  would  be  very  long 
before  she  should  be  able  to  go  to  church, 
but  he  replied  that  she  would  soon  be 
better,  and  that  there  was  no  use  in 
being  in  a  hurry  about  the  matter.  He 
had  been  sponsor  for  his  other  children, 
although  he  had  never  professed  to  be  a 
Christian  man,  but  now  he  was  in  such 
a  wicked,  rebellious  state  of  mind  that 
he  felt  ashamed  to  assume  such  an  office, 
and  that  was  the  reason  why  he  kept 
putting  off  the  baptism  of  the  baby. 

But  when  Comfort  was  three  months 
old,  she  was  taken  very  sick  with  the 
croup,  and  her  mother  and  Fanny  were 
almost  sure  that  she  would  not  get  well, 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT,  13 

and  then  Mr.  Foster  was  frightened,  and 
thought  God  was  going  to  take  his  child 
away  to  punish  him  for  being  so  wicked. 
He  went  immediately  to  Granville,  for 
the  doctor  and  clergyman,  and  the  latter 
not  only  baptized  the  child,  but  was  its 
sponsor.  There  is  no  doubt  that  he  would 
have  been  an  excellent  friend  to  Comfort, 
but  he  was  taken  ill  in  a  few  weeks  and 
died,  so  that  Mrs.  Foster  was  the  only 
one  left  to  teach  the  child  when  she  grew 
up  what  a  solemn  vow  and  promise  had 
been  made  in  her  name. 

And  now,  my  young  readers,  you 
are  expecting  that  our  little  friend  will 
have  a  very  gloomy  life,  but  you  are  » 
mistaken.  Those  are  always  the  hap 
piest  who  are  the  cause  of  joy  to  others, 
and  Comfort  Foster  had  a  much  fairer 
prospect  of  happiness  than  many  a  child 
who  is  surrounded .  by  gay  companions. 
She  would  soon  learn  that  her  sick 


14  OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT/ 

mother  depended  upon  her  for  cheerful 
ness,  and  that  by  her  little  caresses  she 
could  bring  a  smile  to  her  father's  stern 
brow,  so  that  she  would  feel  herself  of 
use,  and  there  are  no  children  too  young 
to  find  that  a  pleasure.  If  you  do  not 
believe  it,  go  and  try  to  make  somebody 
feel  brighter  and  happier  by  a  kind  look 
or  word,  carry  a  flower  to  the  sick  and 
smooth  their  pillow,  or  give  some  mark 
of  affection  and  sympathy  to  the  sorrow 
ful,  and  when  you  see  what  pleasure 
there  is  in  even  offering  a  glass  of  water 
in  a  tight  spirit,  you  will  understand 
why  -  no  child  is  in  danger  of  being 
wretched  except  she  is  one  who  is  wrapt 
up  in  herself. 

When  Comfort  was  four  years  old, 
she  was  one  of  the  dearest  little  things 
in  the  world.  Her  golden  hair  was  no 
longer  in  little  rings  on  the  top  of  her 
head,  but  fell  round  her  sweet  face  in 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFOKT.  15 

long  bright  curls,  and  her  laugh  was 
such  a  merry  sound  that  the  very  birds 
seemed  won  by  it  to  build  their  nests 
in  the  grim  old  poplars  that  rose  above 
her  home,  where  they  did  their  best  to 
make  music  as  sweet. 

It  seemed  as  if  the  child  knewjiow 
anxious  her  mother  was  that  she  should 
be  old  enough  for  a  companion,  for 
after  she  began  to  speak,  her  tongue 
was  never  weary  of  talking,  and  she 
said  many  things  that  were  quite  re 
markable  for  such  a  little  girl.  Mrs. 
Foster's  sad  heart  had  been  for  a  long 
time  shut  up  in  her  own  breast,  but 
now  she  was  so  pleased  to  have  some 
one  to  whom  she  could  speak  freely  of 
her  lost  children,  that-  she  would  spend 
hours  in  telling  Comfort  about  her  broth 
ers  and  sisters,  till  the  little  girl  felt  as 
if  she  had  known  and  loved  them  all. 
"And  where  are  they  now?"  she  asked 


16  OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT. 

eagerly,  as  she  knelt  by  the  bed,  and 
looked  lovingly  into  the  pale,  sweet  face 
that  had  lain  so  long  on  that  pillow. 

"  In  a  beautiful  place,  called  Heaven," 
was  the  reply,  "where  I  hope  that  my 
little  Comfort  will  one  day  see  them  all. 
You  know  that  I  told  you  that  besides 
your  father,  whom  you  see  every  day, 
you  had  another  one,  to  whom  you  speak 
every  night  before  you  go  to  sleep.  Al 
though  He  can  hear  all  that  you  say, 
and  knows  each  thought  that  passes 
through  your  mind,  the  place  where  He 
lives  is  not  in  this  world,  but  is  called 
Heaven.  It  is  so  beautiful  that  any 
one,  after  seeing  it,  would  never  want 
to  come  away,  so  He  takes  no  one  there 
till  He  is  ready  to  have  them  go  and 
live  with  Him  forever.  Our  little  Katy 
seemed  very  happy  when  she  heard  that 
God  was  willing  that  she  should  go  to 
that  delightful  home,  and  smiled  so 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  17 

sweetly  when  she  went  away,  that  I 
thought  that  she  looked  like  the  angels 
who  have  always  lived  where  there  is 
no  weeping  or  sorrow." 

"  Does  nobody  cry  in  Heaven  ?"  asked 
Comfort,  eagerly. 

"No,  my  child,"  said  her  mother,  "for 
there  is  no  pain  nor  sickness  there,  nei 
ther  does  any  one  ever  do  wrong,  which, 
you  know,  is  what  makes  us  more  un 
happy  here  than  anything  else." 

"Mother!"  said  little  Comfort,  in  a 
most  earnest  tone,  "I  am  going  to  ask 
God  to  let  me  come  and  live  with  Mim 
and  my  little  brothers  and  sisters  in 
Heaven.  Don't  you  think  He  will  be 
kind  enough  to  take  me  if  *I  say,  c  Please, 
for  Christ's  sake?'  You  know  that  you 
said  He  would  give  me  what  I  wanted, 
if  it  was  right,  and  I  am  sure  that  He 
won't  be  angry  because  I  want  to  come 
and  see  His  pretty  home." 

2* 


18  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

Mrs.  Foster  was  somewhat  startled  at 
these  words,  and  an  expression  of  pain 
same  over  her  face,  while  her  eyes  filled 
with  tears. 

"Don't  talk  so,  my  darling,"  she  said 
quickly,  "  you  frighten  me." 

"  Frighten  you,  mama,"  repeated  Com- 
Vort,  in  astonishment.  "  Didn't  you  say 
lhat  my  brothers  and  sisters  were  happy  ? 
What'  makes  you  frightened  when  I  say 
I  should  like  to  be  with  them  ?" 

"Because  I  could  not  spare  our  little 
Comfort,"  replied  Mrs.  Foster,  sadly,  as 
she  laid  her  thin  hand  on  the  soft  curls 
of  her  child.  "  Are  you  not  willing  to 
stay  here  with  me  ?  (rod  does  not  think 
that  I  have  *  lived  in  this  world  long 
enough  yet,  and  you  would  not  wish 
to  leave  your  poor,  sick  mother,  all 
alone." 

"  Oh  no  I"  said  the  child,  affectionately, 
"I  will  stay  with  you  as  long  as  you 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  19 

want  me  ;  but  don't  you  hope  that  before 
a  great  while  we  may  both  go  and  live 
in  that  beautiful  place  together  ?" 

Mrs.  Foster  did  not  "reply,  but  after 
this  conversation,  Comfort  always  felt  as 
if  she  were  left  in  this  world,  instead  of 
going  to  live  with  her  brothers  and  sis- 
ters,  because  God  knew  that  her  sick 
mother  needed  a  companion,  and  it  was, 
therefore,  her  'first  thought  to  try  and 
cheer  her  loneliness. 

Mrs.  Foster  had  taught  her  child  what 
it  was  to  pray,  before  she  could  speak 
plain,  and  had  tried  so  hard  to  make 
her  feel  that  Grod  was  her  kindest  friend, 
that  sometimes  Comfort's  prayers  sounded 
strangely  familiar.  She  would  tell  all 
her  little  joys  and  sorrows  as  if  she  were 
talking  to  her  mother,  and  the  night  after 
she  had  been  told  where  her  brothers 
and  sisters  were,  Mrs.  Foster  saw  her 
kneel  down  at  the  foot  of  her  bed,  and 


20  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

heard  her  say,  "  Oh,  mj  dear,  good  heav 
enly  Father,  I  wish  I  could  come  and 
live  with  you,  but  mama  says  she  wants 
me  to  stay  here.  Won't  you  tell  me  how 
to  be  a  good  little  girl,  for  mama  says 
bad  children  won't  ever  come  to  your 
pretty  home,  and  I  do  so  want  to  see  it, 
and  I  hope  by  and  by  you'll  let  us  both 
come,  and  then  what  a  happy  time  we 
shall  have." 

Another  evening,  the  little  girl  was  so 
delighted  with  a  box  of  letters  that  her 
father  had  bought  for  her  at  Granville, 
that  she  dropped  right  down  on  her  knees 
in  the  middle  of  the  floor  to  thank  Him 
from  whom,  she  had  been  told,  all  her 
pleasures  proceeded.  Sometimes  her  way 
of  speaking  did  not  seem  to  her  mother 
quite  proper,  but  she  did  not  know  how  to 
make  her  understand  what  a  great  Being 
Go.d  was,  without  her  becoming  afraid 
of  Him,  and  she  hoped  that  His  pure  eye 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  21 

would  accept  the  simple  faith  of  the  child 
and  pardon  anything  that  might  be  amiss 
in  her  manner  or  words. 

There  was  a  large  Bible  and  a  Prayer 
Book  always  lying  upon  the  stand  beside 
Mrs.  Foster's  bed,  and  Fanny,  who  could 
hardly  read  correctly,  used  to  spell  out  a 
few  verses  to  her  mistress  every  morning, 
but  it  was  not  always  easy  to  find  out 
what  they  were  about,  for  the  kind- 
hearted  nurse  was  but  a  poor  scholar. 
After  this  reading  was  over,  Mrs.  Foster 
would  sometimes  tell  Fanny  to  lay*  the 
Bible  on  the  bed,  by  her,  and  then  Com 
fort  would  clamber  up  beside  it,  and  her 
mother  would  show  the  little  girl  all  the 
pictures,  and  tell  her  short  stories  about 
Joseph  and  Samuel,  and  about  the  child- 
.hood  of  our  Saviour. 

One  evening,  just  at  sundown,  the  sick 
lady  had  fallen  asleep  when  Mr.  Foster 
came  home  from  the  bank,  and,  taking 


22  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

0p 

his  little  girl  on  his  knee,  asked  if  she 
could  say  all  her  letters.  Comfort  was 
delighted  to  answer  "  Yes,"  and,  jumping 
down,  she  ran  and  got  the  little  ivory  box 
from  the  lowest  drawer  in  her  mother's 
bureau,  where  it  was  always  kept.  Hav 
ing  emptied  the  letters  all  on  the  carpet, 
she  drew  back  the  curtain,  so  as  to  let  in 
a  little  more  light,  and  then  made  signs 
to  her  father  to  call  for  any  one*  that  he 
chose.  Mr.  Foster  watched  her  motions 
with  fond  affection,  and  beginning  at  the 
end  of  the  alphabet,  called  out  the  letters 
backward,  and  they  were  all  brought  to 
him  without  a 'single  mistake. 

"When  Comfort  had  thus  convinced  her 
father  that  she  knew  all  the  contents  of 
her  beloved  ivory  boxfc  she  was  seized 
with  a  desire  to  look  over  the  pictures 
in  the  Bible  and  hear  some  of  her  favorite 
stories,  but  with  all  her  signs  and  ges 
tures  she  could  not  make  her  father 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  23 

understand  what  she  wanted.  The  heavy 
book  was  lying  at  the  foot  of  her  mother's 
bed,  but  she  could  not  lift  it  down  and 
did  not  like  to  ask  her  father  to  get  it, 
for  she  knew  he  was  tired  and  did  not 
want  .to  move.  For  some  time  she  sat 
eyeing  it  very  wistfully,  and  then  she 
jumped  up  and  down,  clapping  her  hands 
as  if  she  had  just  had  a  very  bright 
thought.  Her  father  did  not  know  what 
she  was  about,  till  he  saw  her  take  a  long 
string  off  from  a  little  footstool,  which 
she  called  her  "carriage,"  and  fasten  it 
around  the  Bible.  Then  she  slowly 
drew  the  book  off  the  bed,  standing  close 
by  it,  so  that  it  might  not  make  a  noise 
coming  down  to  the  ground,  and  when 
this  was  done  she  dragged  it  round  to 
her  father's  chair,  where  she  stood  point 
ing  at  it  with  such  a  winning  smile,  that 
he  could  not  resist  her  wishes.  He  took 
the  book  up  on  one  knee  and  the  little 


24  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

girl  on  the  other,  and  after  lie  had 
showed  her  all  the  pictures,  told  her  the 
stories  which  he  had  liked  best  when  a 
child,*and  which  he  had  not  thought  of 
for  many  years. 

Comfort,  who  now  slept  in  a  little  crib 
in  the  same  room  with  her  father  and 
mother,  had  often  wondered  why  Mr. 
Foster  never  said  any  prayers  mornings 
or  evenings,  but  his  deafness  rendered 
it  impossible  for  her  to  make  him  un 
derstand  all  that  she  wished  to  tell  him, 
so  that  he  was  not  aware  of  the  idea 
that  was  working  in  her  little  brain.  But 
now  she  thought  she  had  a  good  chance 
to  ask  if  men  ought  not  to  pray  as  well 
as  children,  so  when  they  came  to  the 
picture  of  little  Samuel,  she  pointed  first 
to  him  and  then  herself,  as  much  as  to 
say,  "He  prayed  and  I  pray,"  and  then 
making  him  turn  back  to  a  picture  of 
Jacob  kneeling  at  Bethel,  she  looked  at 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  25 

him,  and  her  face  said,  as  plain  as  words, 
"  Father,  ought  you  not  to  do  the  same  ?" 
Mr.  Foster  did  not  answer  this  earnest 
appeal,  but  that  night,  as  little  Comfort 
lay  in  her  crib,  she  saw  her  father  kneel 
ing  at  th.e  foot  of  the  bed,  and  she  went 

to  sleep  with  a  happy  heart, 
ft 


26  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 


CHAPTER  II. 

his  little  daughter  was  six  years 
old,  Mr.  Foster  proposed,  one  Sabbath 
morning,  that  she  should  go  with  him 
to  Granville,  to  church.  Mrs.  Foster's 
eyes  filled  with  tears  of  pleasure  at  these 
words,  for  her  husband  had  never  been 
to  church,  hiaaself,  since  he  had  become 
so  deaf,  because  he  said  there  was  no 
use  in  going  when  he  could  not  hear  a 
word  that  the  clergyman  read  or  preached. 
"  But  you  could  keep  up  with  the  ser 
vice,"  his  wife  would  reply,  "  and  find 
the  lessons,  and  worship  God  with  the 
congregation." 

"  I  can  read  the  Prayer  Book  at  home," 
was  his  answer;  but  this  he  never  did, 
like  most  people  who  make  the  same 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  27 

excuse  for  not  going  to  church.  Now 
that  he  really  felt  a  desire  to  do  right 
he  could  not  be  contented  without  a  more 
public  acknowledgment  of  his  dependence 
upon  his  Maker. 

Mrs.  Foster  rang  the  bell  at  the  head 
of  her  bed,  for  Fanny3  and  then  she  began 
to  think  what  Comfort  would  wear  to 
church,  for  the  little  girl  had  no  clothes, 
only  such  as  had  belonged  to  her  sisters, 
or  were  made  out  of  her  mother's,  and 
these  were  very  queer  and  old-fashioned. 
At  first,  the  fond  mother  wished  that 
her  darling  had  some  less  peculiar  look 
ing  garments,  but  she  remembered  that 
we  should  always  dress  according  to  the 
society  into  which  we  are  going,  and 
that  the  best  preparation  for  entering 
the  presence  of  our  Maker  is  a  clean 
heart  and  a  right  spirit. 

When  Fanny  answered  the  bell,  Com 
fort  came  with  her,  and  the  child  was 


28  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

almost  wild  with  joy  at  hearing  that  she 
was  to  go  to  church  with  her  father.  She 
had  never  been  to  Granville  in  her  life, 
and  as  she  took  all  her  walks  in  the 
retired  roads  around  the  house,  she  rarely 
saw  anybody  but  her  own  family. 

But  it  was  not  only  the  idea  of  going 
to  the  village  which  excited  the  little  girl, 
but  the  thought  of  entering  a  church, 
which  her  mother  always  mentioned  as 
the  place  of  all  others  that  she  most 

wished  to  visit.     It  is  true  that  Comfort 
\ 

had  no  very  clear  idea  of  what  a  church 
was,  and  having  confused  it  with  the 
many  descriptions  that  she  had  heard 
of  Heaven,  one  of  her  first  questions  was, 
"  Shall  I  see  my  brothers  and  sisters/ 
and  will  Jesus  Christ  be  there,  looking 
like  the  little  boy  in  the  Temple,  with 
the  Doctors?" 

Mrs.  Foster  smiled  at  the  childish- 
thought,  and  tried  to  teach  Comfort  how 


OUK  LITTLE  COMFOKT.  29 

God  could  be  present  and  not  be  seen, 
as  He  was  everywhere,  and  how  the 
minister  was  sent  by  the  Lord  Jesus  to 
speak  the  words  taken  out  of  Holy  Scrip 
ture,  and  therefore  ought  to  be  listened 
to  very  attentively  and  humbly. 

Comfort  looked  very  intelligent  during 
this  explanation,  but  I  do  not  think  that 
slie  yet  understood  exactly  what  kind  of 
a  place  she  was  going  to,  only  she  felt 
reverence  for  the  man  who  was  to  be 
so  honored  as  to  tell  the  people  what 
was  the  will  of  the  Great  Being  who 
made  them  all. 

While  this  conversation  had  been 
going  on,  Fanny  had  taken  the  little 
girl's  clothes  out  of  a  trunk  in  the  cor 
ner  of  the  room,  and  hung  them  over 
the  back  of  the  old  chintz  lounge,  and 
now.  she  called  to  her  to  come  "and  put 
on  a  pair  of  blue  gaiter  boots  which 
had  once  been  hey:  sister  Kate's,  and 

8* 


30  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

which  she  had  never  seen  before.  They 
were  a  little  too  large,  and  so  was  the 
grey  silk  pelisse  which  had  been  made 
out  of  an  old  frock  of  her  mother's,  but 
Comfort  seemed  to  think  that  they  were 
very  nice,  and  that  the  round  white  hat, 
with  a  pearl  buckle  at  the  side,  was  ex 
ceedingly  beautiful.  Still,  she  did  not 
pay  much  attention  to  either  of  these 
things  after  her  first  exclamation  of  ad 
miration,  for  she  had  never  seen  any 
one  who  thought  much  of  dress,  and 
her  mother  always  told  her  that  her 
body,  and  its  covering,  must  be  laid 
aside  when  she  went  to  the  beautiful 
world  where  her  sisters  lived,  and,  as 
she  was  constantly  looking  forward  with 
pleasure  to  that  time,  of  course  she  did 
not  overvalue  what  would  then  be  of 
no  consequence.  She  chattered  away 
while  Fanny  buttoned  up  her  red  dress 
and  put  on  the  grey  pelisse,  and  did 


OUR   LITTLE   COMFORT.  31 

not  even  stop  while  her  ringlets  were 
being  curled,  though  Fanny  sometimes 
pulled  them  very  hard  as  she  was  brush 
ing  them  around  her  great  red  fingers. 

Mrs.  Foster  could  not  help  thinking, 
when  her  little  girl  was  dressed,  that 
she  was  a  pretty  creature  in  spite  of  her 
old-fashioned  clothes,  and  she  wondered 
how  anybody  could  imagine  it  of  any 
consequence  what  a  child  wore,  when  a 
sweet  expression  and  tidy  habits  could 
always  make  it  attractive. 

"  Now,  Fanny,"  she  said,  "  go  to  the 
big  trunk  in  the  next  room  and  take 
out  my  purple  Prayer  Book.  Comfort 
shall  carry  that,  to-day,  to  church,  and 
when  she  reads  the  prayer  for  all  sick 
persons,  she  will  think,  I  know, -of -her 
poor  mother." 

Comfort  was  not  too  much  occupied 
with  her  curiosity  as  to  the  treasure 
with  which  she  was  to  be  intrusted,  to 


32  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

pay  attention  to  what  her  mother  said, 
for  she  walked  very  soberly  to  the  bed 
side  and  said,  as  she  put  up  her  pretty 
little  mouth  for  a  kiss,  "  I  will  get  all 
the  people,  mother,  to  ask  God  to  make 
you  well,  for  you  know  that  you  said 
if  two  or  three  asked  for  a  thing  together 
He  liked  to  do  it.  I  shall  be  one,  and 
father  makes  two,  and  if  we  can  get  some 
body  else  to  help  us  there  will  be  three, 
and  then,  perhaps,  God  will  cure  you, 
and  you  can  go  to  church  yourself." 

Mrs.  Foster  smiled  at  the  simple  faith 
of  the  child,  and  handed  her  the  pretty 
purple  Prayer  Book  after  she  had  put 
the  red  marks  in  the  places  where  they 
would  be  needed. 

Comfort  had  learned  to  read  almost 
by  herself  after  her  father  had  taught 
her  to  say  the  ivory  letters,  and  as  she 
had  only  two  little  books,  which  did  not 
long  satisfy  her  curiosity,  she  had  spent 


OUR  LITTLE   OOMFOET.  33 

many  hours  in  spelling  out  the  words 
at  the  bottom  of  the  pictures  in  the  big 
Bible,  till  she  seldom  found  one  that 
puzzled  her.  For  the  last  three  months 
she  had  read  a  Psalm  every  day,  aloud,  ^ 
to  her  mother,  and  it  was  pleasant  to  see 
her  soft  curls  bending  over  the  old  Bible, 
while  her  little  plump  finger  kept  the 
place,  and  sometimes  she  would  look  up 
with  such  a  thoughtful  air,  and  make 
some  remark  that  showed  that  she  was 
interested  in  what  she  read. 

Mr.  Foster  came  into  the  room  soon 
after  Comfort  was  dressed,  and,  taking 
her  tip  in  his  arms,  called  her  "a  little 
darling,"  and  hoped  that  she  would  be 
very  quiet  and  good,  and  remember 
what  the  minister  said,  so  as  to  come 
home  and  tell  her  mother.  Then  he 
led  her  down  the  dark,  narrow  stairs, 
.  and  through  the  big  black  door,  out-  into 
the  pleasant  air  of  a  fine  spring  morning. 


84  OUE  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

The  birds  were  singing  merrily,  and 
Comfort  said  she  guessed  they  were  glad 
that  she  was  going  to  church,  and  one 
or  two  wagons  passed  them,  loaded  with 
people  all  in  their  Sunday  clothes.  The 
little  girl  skipped  and  jumped  along, 
gathering  violets  and  forget-me-nots  from 
the  borders  of  the  meadows  through 
which  they  passed,  till  one  little  hand 
was  quite  full,  and  she  let  go  her  father's 
so  as  to  carry  her  Prayer  Book  in  the 
other.  She  did  not  feel  at  all  tired  when 
they  had  walked  almost  a  mile, 'but  Mr. 
Foster  'insisted  on  carrying  her,  and  did 
not  put  her  down  till  they  were  near  the 
town. 

Though  Comfort  had  never  seen  but 
very  few  .houses,  those  which  they  passed 
did  not  seem  to  excite  her  admiration  so 
much  as  the  gardens  adjoining  them, 
andWhen  they  came  to  one  which  had 
a  large  conservatory,  through  which  a 


OUR  .LITTLE  COMFORT.  85 

lemon-tree  was  visible,  covered  with  its 
yellow  fruit,  the  little  girl  was  almost 
wild  with  delight.  "  Oh,  father !  how 
many  pretty  things  Grod  can  make,"  she 
exclaimed;  "  mustn't  He  be  good?"  And 
though  Mr.  Foster  could  not  hear  what, 
she  said,  he  was  struck  with  her  expres 
sion  of  earnest  thankfulness. 

"  There,  there  I  that's  the  church,  isn't 
it,  father?  I  mean  the  one  that's  point 
ing  at  heaven,"  said  Comfort,  with  great 
animation  as  they  came  near  a  large  stone 
building,  with  a  tall  spire,  surmounted 
by  a  cross. 

Several  persons,  who  were  going  thither 
were  attracted  by  her  expressions  of  de 
light,  and  thought  what  an  odd-looking 
man  that  was,  and  wondered  where  such 
a  queer,  pretty  little  girl  came  from,  and 
how"  it  happened  that  she  had  never 
seen  the  church  before.  They  did  not 
know  about  the  sick  mother  who  had 


86  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

x 

never  left  her  bed  since  Comfort's  birth, 
or  how  her  deaf  father  had,  when  first 
afflicted,  gone  farther  off  from  God,  in 
stead  of  drawing  nigh  to  Him. 

Mr.  Foster  did  not  feel  as  happy  as 
his  child,  for  men  who  have  neglected 
religion  must  always  go  through  a  great 
deal  more  in  coming  back  to  their  heaven 
ly  Father,  for  you  know  the  Prodigal  Son 
suffered  much  before  he  returned  to  his 
dear  parent. 

But  though  Comfort  was  so  full  of  joy, 
the  moment  that  she  stepped  inside  of  the 
church  door,  her  whole  manner  changed. 
She  thought  that  the  voluntary  on  the 
organ  was  the  song  of  the  angels,  and 
fancied  that  some  of  the  low,  sweet  notes 
were  the  voices  of  her  brothers  and  sis 
ters.  Her  blue  eyes  were  full  of  tears  at 
this  idea,  and  yet  there  was  a  happy 
smile  on  her  lips,  and  the  pure  young 
blood  seemed  ready  to  start  from  her 


OUK   LITTLE   COMFORT.  37 

transparent  cheeks.  She  hardly  needed 
to  notice  that  everybody  else  knelt  down 
on  entering  the  church,  for  her  heart 
was  so  full  of  thankfulness  to  be  in  such 
a  holy  place,  that  it  seemed  the  most 
natural  thing  in  the  world.  Her  little, 
simple  prayer  was  not  unlike  the  expres 
sion  of  the  Psalmist,  "  I  was  glad  when 
they  said  unto  me,  let  us  go  into  the 
house  of  the  Lord,"  for  her  words  were, 
"  Dear  Saviour,  I  am  so  glad  to  be  here. 
Tell  me  what  to  do  and  what  to  say, 
and  when  I  go  home,  don't  let  me  for 
get  -how  kind  you  have  been." 

Perhaps  these  simple  prayers  may  seem 
strange,  but  Comfort  had  had  no  instruc 
tion  only  from  her  sick  mother,  who  was 
often  too  ill  to  explain  to  her  all  that 
she  wished,  but  she  had  read  much  in 
the  Bible  and  Prayer  Book,  and  had 
formed  an  idea  that  God  was  the  kindest, 
dearest  friend  that  she  had,  and  I  am 


38  OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT. 

sure  that  this  was  right.  Soon  after  Mr, 
Foster  and  his  little  girl  were  seated  in 
church,  a  lady  and  two  children  came 
into  the  pew  to  which  he  had  been  shown 
by  the  sexton,  and  took  possession  of  the 
upper  end,  as  Comfort  had  seated  herself 
close  to  her  father.  The  lady  was  very 
handsomely  dressed,  and  so  were  both 
her  daughters,  but  the  faces  of  the  chil 
dren  were  by  no  means  as  agreeable  as 
that  of  their  mother.  Neither  of  the 
little  girls  bowed  their  heads,  or  showed 
any  mark  of  reverence  on  entering  the 
church ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  they  com 
menced  whispering  so  loudly,  that  Com 
fort  could  not  help  hearing  what  they  said. 

"  I  should  think,"  remarked  the  elder, 
4£  that  she  imagined  that  she  was  in  her 
own  pew,  by  the  quiet  way  in  which, 
she  has  taken  possession  of  ours." 

This  /speech  was  quite  lost  on  the 
eimple-hearted  person  to  whom  it  re- 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  39 

ferred,  for  "Comfort  had  heard  that  she 
was  going  to  the  house  of  God,  and  she 
thought  that  she  had  as  much  claim  to 
any  part  of  it  as  the  rest  of  His  children. 

"  Did  you  ever  see  such  a  queer  little 
thing?"  continued  the  first  speaker,  who 
was  a  tall  girl  of  about  ten  years  old. 
"  Is  she  a  woman  or  a  child  ?  she  is 
dressed  like  one  and  looks  like  the  other. 
That  old  silk  pelisse  must  have  come 
out  of  the  ark,  and  I  am  sure  Noah's 
youngest  grandchild  used  to.  wear  that 
hat." 

The  only  effect  that  these  rude  words 
had  upon  Comfort,  was  to  excite  her  un- 
mingled  astonishment  and  pity.  "  Those 
girls  have  never  heard  that  God  made 
them,"  she  thought,  "  or  they  would  not 
dare  to  act  so  in  His  house." 

"With  the  full  belief  that  her  com 
panions  were  some  of  the  unfortunate 
heathen  of  whom  her  mother  had  told 


40  OUK  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

her,  the  earnest  little  girl  leaned  forward, 
kindly,  so  as  to  speak  to  the  elder  of  the 
two  children,  without  being  overheard, 
and  said, ' "  This  house  belongs  to  a  very 
great  Being,  called  God,  who  made  us 
all,  and  He  is  angry  when  His  children 
do  not  love  Him,  and  He  punishes  those 
that  displease  Him.  These  books  here," 
she  added,  pointing  to  the  Prayer  Books 
which  lay  in  the  seat,  "will  tell  you 
about  Him,  and  how  he  likes  to  have 
us  act  in  His  house.  Here  is  what  He 
says  Himself."  And  opening  her  own 
book,  she  showed  the  text  at  the  com 
mencement  of  the  Morning  Service,  "  The 
Lord  is  in  His  holy  temple;  let  all  the 
earth  keep  silence  before  Him. 

At  these  remarks,  the  two  children 
both  laughed  aloud,  in  spite  of  the  re 
proving  looks  of  their  mother,  who  could 
not  imagine  what  the  stranger  had  said 
to  excite  their  mirth.  She  was  still  more 


OtfR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  41 

puzzled  to  account  for  it,  when,  on  turn-" 
ing  to  look  at  Comfort,  she  saw  that  the 
little  girl's  face  was  not  only  serious,  but 
expressed  the  greatest  sorrow  and  alarm. 

Comfort  had'  read  in  the  Bible  what 
dreadful  punishments  Gotl  sometimes  in 
flicted  on  those  who  displeased.  Him,  and 
as  she  thought  how  wicked  these  chil 
dren  must  appear  in  His  eyes,  she  almost 
expected  to  see  lighthing  coming  down 
from  heaven  to  destroy  them.  She  did 
not  know  that"  though  'God  is  still  angry 
with  sin,  He  sometimes  puts  off  its  punish 
ment,  and  that  each  word  and  act  of  those 
irreverent  children  was  written  down  in 
a  book  which  would  be  read  at  the  day 
of  judgment. 

The  voice  of  the  minister,  as  he  com 
menced  the  Morning  Service,  quieted 
Comfort's  mind,  and,  such  is  the  force 
of  example,  that  her  young  companions 
opened  their  Prayer  Books  and  listened 

4* 


"    4:2  OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT. 

to  the  Exhortation.  They  did  no,t  join, 
however,  in  the  following  Confession  of 
Sin,  in  which  Comfort  spoke  very  dis 
stinctly,  for,  though  we  have  not  told  of 
the  naughty  things  that  sh%  did,  she  had 
been  guilty  of  many  acts  and  words  that 
needed  repentance.  Mr.  Foster's  voice, 
too,  sounded  very  solemn,  for  he  had  not 
only  the  unconfessed  sins  of  a  .day,  or 
week,  to  lament,  but  those  of  "the  long 
-  years  which  had  passed  since  he  last 
knelt  in  the  house  of  prayer. 

The  first  Morning  Lesson  was  one  of 
those  chapters  in  Numbers,  that  gives 
an  account  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
children  of  Israel  angered  God  in  the 
wilderness,  and  Comfort  turned  round 
to  see  if  the  little  girls  beside  her  were 
not  frightened  to  learn  how  dangerous 
it  was  to  provoke  such  a  powerful  Being, 
but  they  seemed  entirely  occupied  with 
their  own  clothes,  taking  their  kid  gloves 


1 
OUE  LITTLE  COMFORT.  48 

off,  and  looking  to  see  how  much  differ 
ence  there  was  in  the  patterns  of  their 
embroidered  handkerchiefs. 
•  "I  wonder  if  they  are  going  to  live 
in  this  world  for  ever,"  thought  Comfort, 
"for  mama  said,  that  when  we  went 
out  of  it,  we  could  carry  nothing  with 
us,  and  I  am  sure-  they  would  not  be  so 
fond  of  their  clothes,  if  they  must  take 
them  off  when  they  are  called  away. 
But,  perhaps,  they  are  going  to  the  bad 
world !  maybe  people  can  carry  what 
they  like  there,  for  the  very  ones  that 
set  their  hearts  on  what  they  have  here, 
the  Bible  says,  will  have  to  live  there. 
Oh,  how  dreadful  it  is-  to  think  such 
dear  little  girls  may  go  to  such  an  awful 
place !"  And  then  the  tears  filled  those 
sweet  blue  eyes,  and  a  sob  burst .  from 
her  troubled  heart. 

jMr.  Foster  saw  that  his  little  girl  was 
crying,  and  asked  her  if  anything  was 


44  OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT. 

the  matter,  but  she  only  shook  her  head, 
while  her  heart  heaved  with  emotion. 
It  was  a  relief  to  her  when  everybody 
knelt  down  again,  and  she  could  hide 
her  face  in  the  cushion  and  cry  to  her 
heart's  content.  She  joined  earnestly  in 
the  Lenten  Collect,  particularly  praying 
that  Grod  would  give  her  young  compan 
ions  new  and  contrite  hearts.  Some  lit 
tle  girls  may  not  know  what  the  word 
"  contrite"  means,  but  Comfort  was  never 
satisfied  to  say  a  prayer  till  she  under 
stood  every  word  of  it,  and,  before  Lent 
began,  her,  mother  had  read  over  the 
Collect  for  Ash- Wednesday,  and  ex 
plained  it  very  fully. 

The  hymn  which  was  sung  ty  the 
congregation  after  the  service  was  read, 
was  the  pretty  one  which  begins, 

"  Oh,  in  the  morn  of  life 

When  youth  with  vital  ardor  glows, 
And  shines  in  all  the  fairest  charms 
That  beauty  can  disclose." 


OUK  LITTLE   COMFOET.  45 

Comfort  again  thought,  when  the  organ 
played,  that  the  angels  were  joining  in 
the  siDging. 

The  moment  that  the  clergyman  went 
up  into  the  pulpit,  the  little  girl  pre 
pared  to  give  her  whole  attention  to  what 
he  said,  for  she  remembered  what  her 
mother  had  told  her,  and  felt  as  if  she 
were  going  to  hear  a  message  from  her 
heavenly  Father.  There  were  many 
words  in  the  sermon  which  she  did  not 
understand,  but  the  text  was,  "  Eemem- 
ber  thy  Creator  in  the  days  of  thy 
youth,"  and  that  was  so  pretty  that  she 
never  tired  of  hearing  it  repeated. 

Mr.  Foster,  during  the  sermon,  was 
thinking  very  deeply,  and  perhaps  his 
own  meditations  on  that  day  did  him 
as  much  good  as  any  discourse  could 
have  done.  It  is  certain  that  his  face 
was  more  cheerful  than  Comfort  had 
ever  seen  it,  when,  at  the  close  of  the 


.    46  OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT. 

services,  lie  took  his  little  girl  by  the 
hand  to  lead  her  out 'of  church.  Before 
they  left  the  pew,  the  lady  who  was 
sitting  at  the  head  of  it  asked  Comfort 
what  was  her  name,  and  where  she  lived. 
"I  wish  you  would  come  and  see  my 
little  girls,"  she  added,  "for  I  am  sure 
that  a  child  who  behaves  so  well  in 
church  would  be  a  nice  companion  for 
them." 

Comfort  wondered  why  any  one  should 
praise  her  for  doing  only  what  was  right, 
and  what  she  should  be  afraid  not  to 
do,  but  she  answered  very  simply  and 
sweetly,  saying,  that  she  had  a  sick 
mother  who  could  not  spare  her,  but 
who  would  like,  she  was  sure,  to  have 
any  little  girls  come  and  see  her,  "only," 
she  .  added,  very  earnestly,  "  perhaps 
mama  would  not  wish  to  have  me  much 
with  any  children  who  do  not  love  the 
great  God  well  enough  to  obey  Him. 

4 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  47 

She  is  never  angry  with  me  only  when  * 
I  do  wrong,  and  I  don't  think  she  would 
like  it  if  your  little  girls  said  anything 
naughty  before  her." 

"You  are  a  queer  little  thing,"  said 
the  lady,  who  was  puzzled  by  the  man 
ner  and  conversation  of  the  child.  c '  A.sk 
your  father  if  you  may  not  come  and 
see  me.  I  live  at  the  large  stone  house 
just  below  the  church." 

"  He*could  riot  hear  me,"  replied  Com 
fort,  "  and  indeed,  do  you  think  it  is 
right  for  us  to  be  talking  in  church  ? 
Had  we  not  better  wait  till  we  get  out 
doors  before  we  say  any  more?" 

"Certainly,"  replied  the  lady,  hastily, 
"only  always  sit  here  when  you  come 
to  church." 

Comfort  bowed  in  acknowledgment  of 
this  offer,  but,  without  opening  her  lips 
again,  took  her  father's  hand  and  walked 
quietly  out  of  church.  She  did  not  speak 


48  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

till  they  were  quite  in  the  country,  and 
then  she  looked  up  in  her  father's  face 
and  said,  "  Was  it  not  nice  to  be  there  I" 
He  understood  her  words  from  the  motion 
of  her  lips,  and,  stooping  down,  kissed 
her  tenderly,  and  asked  if  she  would  not 
like  to  be  carried  a  little  way. 

Comfort  assured  him  that  she  was  not 
in  the  least  tired,  and  so  they  walked  on 
in  silence,  but'  the  child  now  and  then 
lifted  her  blue  eyes  to  the  deeper  blue 
sky,  and  tried  to  think  how  Heaven 
would  look,  and  wondered  how  long  it 
would  be  before  she  should  learn  to  sing 
the  song  of  angels.  She  stopped,  how 
ever,  to  gather  some-  fresh  flowers  for 
her  mother,  having  left  those  in  the  pew 
which  she  had  taken  to  church,  and  she 
was  delighted  to  find  some  anemones  and 
sweet-scented  white  violets  that  she  par 
ticularly  loved.  The'  tall,  dingy  house 
looked  really  pleasant  to  her  as  they 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  49 

came  near  it,  for  she  knew  it  contained 
her  dear  mother,  and  a  happy'  heart 
makes  everything  appear  bright.  She 
could  hardly  wait  for  her  father  to  open 
the  door,  and  then  she  bounded  up  the 
long  dark  stair  t,  and  running  into  her 
mother's  chamber,  exclaimed, 

"  Dear,  dear  mama,  you  will  certainly 
be  well,  for  everybody  prayed  for  all 
sick  persons." 


50  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 


CHAPTER  III. 

IT  was  wonderful  to  see  how  every 
room  in  Mr.  Foster's  house  changed  after 
Comfort  was  able  to  run  about  and  play 
in  them  all.  The  little  back  dining  room 
had  before  been  a  dreary  looking  place, 
but  now  it  began  to  have  quite  an  in 
habited  air.  "While  Mr.  Foster  ate  his 
meals  there,  all  by  himself,  the  table  was 
never  moved  out  from  the  wall,  and  one 
solitary  plate  was  set  at  the  end  of  it, 
with  the  other  dishes  crowded  around, 
in  the  greatest  confusion.  Now,  the  table 
stood  in  the  middle  of  the  floor,  regularly 
laid  for  two  people,  with  a  pretty  silver 
cup,  and  a  knife  and  fork  of  the  same 
metal,  at  the  plate  before  it.  These  were 
a  present  to  Comfort  from  an  aunt  who 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  51 

lived  in  England,  and  she  thought  a  great 
deal  of  them,  not  because  they  were  ex 
pensive,  for  I  do  not  believe  that  she  had 
the  slightest  idea  what  was  the  price  of 
anything,  but  because  they  could  not  be 
broken,  and  she  could  therefore  keep 
them  always  to  remember  a  relative  of 
whom  she  had  Heard  her  mother  speak 
with  so  much  affection. 

Mr.  Foster  did  not  come  home  to  din 
ner,  so  the  little  girl  ate  that  meal  with 
her  mother,  but  at  tea  and  breakfast 
she  would  often  try  and  lift  the  small 
old  fashioned  tea-pot,  so  as  to  fill  her 
father's  cup;  and  before  she  was  strong 
enough  for  this,  she  insisted  on  putting 
the  milk  and  sugar,  at  least,  into  it,  with 
her  own  plump,  little,  white  hands. 

The  next  evening  after  Comfort  went 
to  Granville  church,  as  her  mother  was 
asleep,  she  came  down  into  the  dining- 
room  to  wait  for  Mr.  Foster's  return  from 


62  CUE  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

the  bank,  and  was  perched  up  in  her 
little  chair,  looking  as  bright  as  a  star, 
when  he  opened  the  door.  She  sprang 
down  to  welcome  him,  and  tugged  away 
at  the  sleeve  of  his  overcoat,  which  was 
damp  with  a  spring  shower,  and  then 
took  her  seat  at  the  table  again  "as  if 
she  were  quite  a  woman.  All  at  once 
the  little  girl  spied  the  funniest  looking 
thing  in  the  chair  beside  her  father,  and 
forgetting  that  she  was  going  to  pour 
out  his  tea,  she  jumped  down  again  from 
her  seat,  and  taking  up  the  queer  con 
trivance  of  green  tin,  began  to  make 
all  manner  of  signs  to  learn  what  it 
might  be.  She  put  it  over  a  cup  to  ask 
if  it  were  a  funnel,  and  then  turned  it 
upside  down  and  stuck  her  finger  in  the 
end  to  inquire  if  it  was  a  candlestick, 
while  Mr.  Foster  sat  smiling  at  her  curi 
osity. 
At  length,  with  rather  a  sad  expres- 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  53 

sion,  he  took  a  long  tube  from  his  pocket, 
and  attaching  it  to  the  green  funnel- 
shaped  mouth-piece,  put  one  end  in  his 
ear. 

The  idea  now  struck  Comfort  what 
the  queer  thing  was,  but  she  thought 
that  her  father  would  look  very  funny 
with  such  a  thing  always  in  his  ear,  and 
she  pushed  it  away  with  her  hand,  say 
ing  quickly, — 

"  Oh,  don't,  father,  it  makes  you  look 
so." 

Although  Mr.  Foster  did  not  know 
what  the  child  said,  her  motion  was  very 
expressive,  and  his  face  grew  more  grave, 
bat  in  a  moment  he  conquered  the  un 
pleasant  feeling,  and  said  cheerfully, — 

"  I  wanted  to  hear  the  sound  of  my 
little  daughter's  voice.  Speak  through 
this,  my  dear,  and  see  if  I  can  hear 
what  you  say." 

Comfort  sprang  to  his  knee,  and  put- 

6* 


54:  OUR  LITTLE  .  COMFORT. 

ting  the  trumpet  to  her  mouth,  said  very 
distinctly, — 

"  My  dear  father,  how  happy  I  should 
be  if  I  could  only  talk  to  you  as  much 
as  I  wished." 

The  words  were  hardly  spoken  before 
he  clasped  her  in  his  arms,  and  kissing 
her  tenderly,  exclaimed, — 

"  What  a  blessed  sound  I  I  heard  you 
perfectly,  my  child,  and  your  voice  was 
sweeter  to  me  than  any  music.  How 
could  I  have  so  long  allowed  my  pride 
to  deprive  me  of  this  unspeakable  pleas 
ure  I" 

Comfort  wondered  what  he  meant  by 
these  last  words,  but  she  was  too  much 
delighted 'to  think  of  them  long. 

"  Oh,  let  us  go  right  up  stairs  to 
mama,"  she  exclaimed,  "won't  she  be 
glad  to  speak  to  you  once  more?  She 
was  asleep  when  I  came  down,  but  it 
will  make  her  so  happy  to  talk  to  you 


OUK  LITTLE  COMFORT.  55 

that  she  won't  mind  being  waked  up,  Fm 
sure." 

Mr.  Foster,  however,  thought  that  i 
was  best  not  to  disturb  his  wife  till 
after  supper,  but  Comfort  gave  up  all 
idea  of  making  tea,  and  got  Fanny  to 
bring  her  chair  round  close  to  her  father's, 
and  never  let  go  the  ear-trumpet  till  he 
insisted  on  her  taking  time  to  eat.  Then 

she  swallowed  a  few  mouthfuls  in  silence, 

« 

but  suddenly  some  thought  struck  her, 
which  she  could  not  keep  to  herself,  and 
she  again  seized  the  tube  and  said,  very 
earnestly, — 

"  Father,  I  read  in  the  Bible  that  when 
they  were  building  the  tabernacle,  God 
made  two  men  very  wise,  on  purpose 
that  they  might  do  some  very  cunning 
work.  Did  he  make  another  man  wise, 
too,  so  that  you  might  have  this  ear- 
trumpet  and  talk  to  mama?" 

"  Perhaps  so,"  replied  Mr.  Foster,  who 


56  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

wondered  how  such  an  idea  came  into 
the  child's  head,  and  how  she  happened 
to  notice  the  verses  about  Bezaleel  and 
Aholiab  in  the  35th  chapter  of  Ex 
odus. 

"  Father,"  said  Comfort,  again  putting 
down  her  knife  and  fork  to  take  hold  of 
the  ear-trumpet,  "don't  it  seem  just  like 
our  Saviour  to  make  you  hear  again? 
You  know  He  was  always  curing  the 
deaf;  and  though  I  never  read  of  any 
body  that  He  gave  such  a  thing  to,  yet  it 
shows  the  same  love  to  teach  somebody 
how  to  make  it.  Doesn't  it  ?" 

"Yes,  my  child,  God  has  been  very 
kind_to  me  I"  replied  Mr.  Foster;  and  it 
was  almost  the  first  time  that  Comfort 
had  ever  heard  him  speak  of  the  Being 
who  was  so  much  in  her  own  thoughts. 

"  May  I  tell  mama,  now  ?"  she  asked, 
as  she  saw  that  her  father  had  finished  hia 
silpper. 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  57 

" If  she  is  awake,"  was  the  answer; 
and  before  Mr.  Foster  could  'reach  his 
wife's  chamber,  Comfort  was  seated  on 
her  bed,  telling  her  that  God  had  taught 
somebody  how  to  make  her  father  a  new 
ear,  so  that  he  could  hear  all  that  every 
body  said.  Mrs.  Foster  did  not  under 
stand  exactly  what  the  delighted  child 
meant ;  but  when  she  saw  the  ear-trumpet 
her  heart  overflowed  with  thankfulness 
that  her  husband  had,  at  last,  consented 
to  use  such  an  instrument.  He  came  to 
her  bedside,  and  kissed  her  with  un 
common  tenderness;  and  then  seating 
himself  in  the  great  leather  chair,  enjoyed 
the  first  conversation  with  his  wife  which 
he  had  had  for  eight  years. 

In  the  mean  time,  Comfort  sat  on  his 
knee,  with  her  head  on  his  bosom,  never 
interrupting  him,  but  showing  by  her 
animated  face  how  deeply  she  sympathized 
in  her  mother's  joy.  When  it  came  time 


58  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

for  her  to  go  to  bed,  she  could  not  sleep; 
for,  instead  of  the  silence  that  there  always 
was  in  the  room,  when  her  own  tongue 
was  still,  she  could  hear  her  father's 
voice,  and  the  gentle  tones  of  his  delicate 
wife. 

As  the  little  girl  grew  drowsy,  her 
thoughts  became  somewhat  composed; 
but  the  last  one  before  she  dropped  asleep 
was  of  the  goodness  and  greatness  of  her 
Heavenly  Father. 

At  daylight,  the  next  morning,  Mr. 
Foster  was  awakened  by  hearing  a  sweet 
voice  saying  the  hymn, 

"When  streaming  from  the  eastern  skies, 
The  morning  light  salutes  mine  eyes, 
O  Sun  of  Righteousness  divine, 
On  me  with  beams  of  mercy  shine ; 
Chase  the  dark  clouds  of  sin  away, 
And  turn  my  darkness  into  day." 

Was  he  dreaming,  or  had  he  recovered 
his  hearing  during  the  night? 
He  had  forgotten  all   about  the   ear- 


OUR   LITTLE  COMFORT.  59 

trumpet,  but  on  opening  "his  eyes,  saw 
little  Comfort  in  her  nightgown,  with  her 
golden  hair  floating  round  her  smiling 
face,  holding  the  tube  in  one  hand,  while 
the  other  kept  it  firm  in  his  ear.  "With 
the  rosy  light  of  dawn,  brightening  her 
fair  skin,  she  might  well  have  been  mis 
taken  for  some  good  angel,  who  had  been 
watching  over  his  sleep;  and  with  her 
smile  there  mingled  a  sweet  earnestness, 
befitting  the  words  that  she  had  just 
repeated. 

"Will  you  hear  me  read,  father?" 
asked  the  little  girl.  "I  thought  }ou 
would  like  to  wake  up  early,  this  mom- 
ing,  because  you  had  so  much  to  thank 
our  Heavenly  Father  for;  and  that  per 
haps  I  might  help  you  by  reading  a  psalm 
while  you  were  shaving.  Would  you  like 
that,  dear  papa?" 

"  Could  you,  my  dear,  keep  your  eyes 
on  your  book  and  at  the  same  time  speak 


60  OUR  LITTLE  COMFOET. 

through  my  trumpet  ?  and  won't  it  be  a 
hard  task  for  mexto  hold  my  head  still 
while  I  am  shaving  and  dressing?  But  I 
will  get  up  now,  and  there  will  be  time, 
after  I  have  done,  for  you  to  repeat  to  me 
some  nice  verses  that  you  have  learned, 
and  that  will  do  as  well  as  if  you  read 
them." 

Comfort  looked  a  little  disappointed, 
but  she  was  consoled  by  her  father  letting 
her  go  herself  for  his  shaving  cup,  which 
was  in  the  next  room,  and  then  she  lay 
down  again,  and  thought  over  all  the 
Psalms  and  texts  she  knew,  so  as  to 
choose  some  to  recite  to  him  when  he 
was  ready  to  hear  her. 

When  Mr.  Foster  was  dressed,  he  rang 
the  bell  for  Fanny,  and  then  he  told  Com 
fort  that  she  could  get  up,  and  that  as 
soon  as  she  was  ready  for  breakfast  she 
must  come  down  into  the  dining-room. 
When  her  father  had  gone,  Comfort 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  61 

jumped  out  of  her  crib  and  popped  into 
the  bath,  which  Fanny  had  filled,  just 
like  a  little  duck,  for  she  loved  dearly  to 
be  in  the  water.  But  she  came  out  the 
moment  that  her  nurse  said  it  was  time, 
and  put  on  the  clothes  that  were  laid  on 
the  chair  as  quickly  as  possible,  without 
making  any  objection  to  one  of  them. 

My  little  readers  may  think  that  Com 
fort  had  not  any  taste,  but  they  are  mis 
taken,  for  she  very  much  preferred  some 
colors  to  others,  and  had  a  particular 
fancy  for  wearing  white  dresses.  But  she 
knew  that  her  blue  mousseline  de  laine 
was  much  better  for  April,  and  so  she 
said  it  looked  like  the  sky,  and  though 
the  frock  had  been  worn  all  winter,  it 
had  not  a  single  stain.  The  little  girl 
was  very  particular  about  keeping  her 
clothes  nice,  and  if  the  least  speck  got 
on  one  of  her  favorite  white  dresses,  she 
would  look  at  it  with  the  most  mournful 


62  OUR  LITTLE   COMFOET. 

expression,  for  she  had  been  told  that 
cleanliness  was  an  emblem  of  holiness, 
and  thought  that  God  liked  purity  of 
body  as  well  as  purity  of  soul.  For  the 
same  reason,  she  never  wanted  to  say  her 
prayers  till  she  had  taken  her  bath.  "  I 
know  He  can  see  me  always,"  she  would 
say  to  her  nurse,  "but  I  like  to  be  clean 
when  I  speak  to  Him."  Her  mother 
could  not  think  how  her  little  daughter 
got  this  idea,  but  Comfort  showed  her  the 
place  in  the  Bible  where  God  told  the 
Israelites  to  wash  their  clothes  before  they 
came  near  to  Mount  Sinai,  and  the  law 
that  He  made,  that  the  priests  should 
always  wear  perfectly  pure  garments 
when  they  came  to  perform  the  service 
of  the  sanctuary. 

It  was  her  own  childish  notion,  but 
she  was  very  right  in  thinking  that  out 
ward  cleanliness  was  a  sign  of  inward 
purity,  for  you  know  that  in  baptism, 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFOET.       ,          63 

the  washing  of  water  is  the  emblem  of 
the  cleansing  of  our  souls  through  the 
blood  of  Christ. 

When  Comfort  was  dressed,  she  knelt 
down  and  thanked  God  for  His  care  of 
her  during  the  past  night,  and  for  all  His  * 
blessings,  and  mentioned  particularly  the 
new  ear-trumpet  through  which  she  could 
speak  to  her  father,  and  she  asked  her 
heavenly  Friend  never  to  let  her  say 
anything  to  her  father  which  would  give 
him  any  pain,  and  to  make  her  more 
useful,  every  day,  to  both  her  dear  pa 
rents. 

When  she  rose  from  her  knees,  the 
little  girl  stole  on  tiptoe  to  the  bed,  and 
gently  kissed  her  mother,  who  was  fast 
asleep,  and  then  she  went  down  stairs 
with  Fanny,  skipping  along  like  a  little 
fawn,  and  singing  as  she  went. 

On  entering  the  dining-room,  Comfort 
found  her  father  reading,  and  as  soon  as 


64:         ^      OUR  LITTLE.  COMFORT. 

he  saw  her  he  told  Fanny  to  ask  the  cook 
if  she  could  come  in  for  a  few  minutes, 
for  he  was  going  to  have  family  prayers. 
Comfort  had  never  heard  of  such  a  thing 
_  before,  but  she  sat  down  on  her  father's 
'knee,  very  quietly,  and  he  found  the 
lesson  for  the  day  in  the  small  Bible  that 
he  had  taken  out  of  the  book-case,  and 
then  the  service  in  the  Prayer  Book  for. 
family  worship. 

The  little  girl  could  not  help  thinking 
of  the  minister  at  church  when  she  heard 
her  father's  voice,  sounding  so  solemn, 
as  he  read  the  chapter  for  tftat  morning, 
and  she  felt  as  if  he  were  going  to  be 
a  clergyman  to  his  own  family.  Just  as 
they  were  kneeling  down  she  wanted  to 
ask  him  to  pray  for  her  mother,  but  she 
was  afraid  it  would  not  be  right  to  do 
so,  and  therefore  she  kept  the  thought 
to  herself,  but  her  heart  bounded  with 
joy  when  she  heard  her  dear  parent  com- 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  65 

mended  to  the  care  of  God  in  a  tone  of 
deep  tenderness,  and  when  she  tried  to 
say  Amen,  a  sob  of  joy  burst  from  her 
full  heart. 

Comfort  thought  she  had  never  loved 
her  father  so  well  as  that  morning,  when, 
after  the  servants  left  the  room,  she  was 
again*  seated  on  his  knee.  When  he 
asked  her  to  repeat  a  Psalm  to  him,  all 
those  that  she  had  been  thinking  about 
went  out  of  her  mind,  and  the  words 
burst  from  her  lips,  "  Bless  the  Lord,  0 
my  soul,  and  all  that  is  within  me  bless 
His  holy  name."  When  she  finished 
repeating  this  Psalm,  her  father  made 
no  remark,  only  he  pressed  her  close 
to  his  bosom,  saying,  "My  little  Com 
fort  !"  in  a  tone  of  fond  affection. 


66  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 


CHAPTER  IT. 

MRS.  FOSTER  was  so  much  of  an  in 
valid,  that  she  did  not  generally  wake 
till  after  her  husband  had  gone  to  the 
bank,  and  lately,  Comfort  had  walked 
a  little  way  with  her  father,  though  she 
never  went  out  of  sight  of  the  house,  and 
Fanny  always  followed  her  to  bring  her 
home.  When  she  came  back  into  the 
yard,  the  little  girl  always  visited  a  bird's 
nest  which  was  just  built  in  a  low  quince 
tree  near  the  front  door,  and  then  she  fed 
her  chickens,  who  each  of  them  had  a 
name  that  she  had  given  them,  on  ac 
count  of  some  peculiarity  in  their  appear 
ance.  One,  with  a  crest,  was  Toppy,  and 
his  slender  mate  was  Ladybird,  and  a 
little  sickly  thing  was  "Pet,"  and  a  fat 


OUR   LITTLE   COM* OUT.  67 

old  hen,  "Mrs.  Waddle."  The  tortoise- 
shell  cat,  who  was  another  of  Comfort's 
darlings,  was  too  well  brought  up  ever 
to  dream  of  troubling  the  chickens,  but 
it  was  very  amusing  to  hear  the  way  in 
which  she  talked  to  her  upon  the  subject. 
But  though  the  little  girl  was  very 
fond  of  all  these  dumb  pets,  she  some 
times  felt  as  Adam  did,  when  first  placed 
in  the  garden  of  Eden ;  that  is,  as  if  there 
were  no  mate  for  herself  among  the 
animals  round  her.  She  tried  to  imagine 
that  her  little  sisters  might  be  looking 
down  at  her,  from  their  happy  home; 
and  at  night,  when  the  stars  shone,  was 
almost  sure  that  they  were  the  eyes  of 
angels:  but  still  she  longed  for  some 
companion  of  her  own  age.  She  nevei 
mentioned  this  wish,  however,  to  hei 
mother ;  for  she  knew  that  the  poor  lad^ 
was  very  «ad  when  anything  was  said 
that  recalled  the  loss  of  her  other  chil 


68  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

dren;  so  she  contented  herself  with 
telling  Fanny  that  she  wished  she  had  a 
little  sister,  or  that  her  big  doll  could  talk 
and  play. 

Poor  Miss  Dolly  was  obliged  to  be  a 
variety  of  little  people,  with  whom  Com 
fort  held  long  conversations — carrying  on 
of  course  both  parts  of  them  herself. 
On  the  Tuesday  morning,  of  which  we 
have  spoken,  Comfort  put  her  up  in  her 
own  high  chair-,  at  the  table  in  the  dining- 
room  ;  and  then  she  seated  herself  in  the 
one  opposite,  and  imagined  that  she  was 
Joseph,  and  Miss  Dolly  was  Benjamin; 
and  they  were  having  a  private  meeting 
after  they  had  discovered  that  they  were 
brothers.  "  My  dear  Benjamin,"  said  the 
imaginary  Joseph,  "  were  you  very  lively 
after  I  went  away?  and  didn't  you  cry 
dreadfully  when  you  found  that  I  was 
never  coming  back?" 

"Oh,  yes!"  said  the  same  sweet  little 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  69 

voice,  now  pretending  to  be  that  of 
Benjamin.  "  I  could  not  get  to  sleep  at 
all,  for  thinking  about  it.  I  used  to  go 
and  get  in  father's  bed  every  night,  and 
sometimes  we  lay  and  talked  about  you 
till  morning.  I  tried  to  act  as  you  did,  so 
as  to  please  father ;  but  I  could  never  be. 
half  as  good.  You  never  knew  about 
the  way  that  our  brothers  did  to  make  us 
think  you  were  dead.  They  took  that 
pretty  coat  of  yours  and  dipped  it  in 
blood,  and  showed  it  to  father!  and  I 
thought  he  would  have  died  when  he  saw 
it ;  and  I  am  sure  I  was  nearly  frightened 
to  leath.  He  always  kept  that  coat  in 
his  room;  and  I  have  often  seen  him 
crying  over  it  as  if  his  heart  was  break 
ing — I  am  sure,  though,  that  Eeuben  felt 
almost  as  bad;  for  he  never  heard  your 
name  without  looking  very  miserable." 

**  Were  they  kind  to  you — I  mean  your 
brothers?"  asked  the  little  Joseph.  j 


70  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

"  Oh,  yes,  they  always  treated  me  well, 
and  though  I  knew  they  were  so  cruel  to 
you,  I  can't  help  loving  them,  and  I  am 
so  glad  that  you  did  not  punish  them." 

The  conversation  was  here  interrupted 
by  the  entrance  of  Fanny,  who  came  to 
say  that  Mrs.  Foster  was  awake,  and 
wanted  to  see  her  little  girl.  Benjamin 
immediately  became  Miss  Dolly  again, 
and  was  dragged  up  stairs  by  one  arm, 
her  old  wooden  head  going  bump,  bump 
all  the  way. 

Comfort  had  much  to  tell  her  mother, 
for  she  had  not  had  an  opportunity  to 
say  anything  since  the  evening  before, 
and  everything  she  said  was  listened  to 
as  attentively  as  if  it  were  the  most  im 
portant  in  the  world.  Two  hours  went 
by  very  quickly,  and  the  tall  old  clock 
in  the  corner  of  the  kitchen  had  just 
struck  twelve,  when  Fanny  came  bustling 
into  Mrs.  Foster's  room  in  a  state  of  great 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  71 

excitement,  and  holding  in  her  hand  a 
visiting  card. 

"  Oh  dear,"  she  said,  "  there's  the  most 
beautiful  dressed  lady  come  in  a  splendid 
carriage,  and  wants  to  see  Mrs.  Foster, 
and  told  me  to  give  her  this  ticket,  and 
fetch  her  back  word  whether  she  could 
come  up." 

"Where  is  she?"  said  Mrs.  Foster^  after 
looking  at  the  card,  on  which  was  en 
graved  the  name  of  "  Mrs.  Henry  Davis," 
and  a  line  written  below,  to  say  that 
that  lady  would  like  to  make  the  ac 
quaintance  of  Mrs.  Foster,  if  she  were 
not  too  ill  to  see  a  stranger. 

"Oh,  in  the  parlor,  ma'am,  and  it  is 
as  dark  as  Egypt  and  as  damp  as  a  dun 
geon,  and  I  warrant  her  fine  things  will 
get  well  dusted,  for  the  room  hasn't  been 
opened  this  six  years." 

Mrs.  Foster  thought  a  moment,  and 
was  on  the  point  of  declining  to  see  the 


72  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

4 

stranger,  when  the  possibility  glanceJ 
through  her  mind,  that  the  time  would 
«ome  when  her  little  daughter  would 
stand  in  need  of  friends  such  as  she 
hoped  this  lady  might  prove. 

"  Comfort,  my  dear,"  she  said,  "  go 
down  stairs  very  carefully,  and  be  sure 
and  not  fall,  and  say  to  Mrs.  Davis,  that 
I  shall  be  happy  to  see  her  in  a  few 
minutes.  I  will  send  Fanny  for  her 
when  I  am  ready,  and  you  must  stay 
and  talk  to  her  till  she  comes." 

Comfort  never  thought  of  not  doing 
exactly  as  she  was  told,  and  though  she 
had  seen  very  few  strangers,  she  did  not 
feel  the  least  awkwardness  in  now  going 
into  the  room  with  her  mother's  message. 
When,  however,  she  reached  the  parlor, 
it  was  so  dark  that  she  could  not  see 
any  one,  so  she  stopped  at  the  door,  and 
called  out, — 

"  Mrs.  Davis,  are  you  in  this  disagree- 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFOET.  73 

able  place.  Won't  you  tell  me  where 
you  are  ?" 

"Here,  my  child,"  said  a  pleasant  voice^ 
and  a  lady  rose  from  a  chair  near  the 
door,  and  stepped  into  the  hall.  "We 
are  old  acquaintances,  I  think,  and  I  have 
corne  partly  to  see  you." 

Comfort  returned  the  kind  kiss  with 
which  these  words  were  accompanied, 
and  recognized  the  visitor  as  the  lady 
whom  she  had  seen  at  church. 

"  Mama  says  that  she  would  like  to  see 
you  in  a  few  moments,"  said  the  little 
girl,  "  but  do  not  stay  in  that  room,  for 
I  heard  Fanny  say  that  it  was  damp 
there,  and  you  might  take  cold,  and  then 
you  would  be  sick,  like  poor  mama,  and 
how  sorry  your  little  girls  would  feel." 

"Will  you  show  me  your  mother's 
room,  then  ?"  said  Mrs.  Davis.  "  Is  that 
what  you  were  to  do  ?" 

"  "No,  ma'am  ;  she  will  send  Fanny  for 


74  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

us  when  she  is  ready  to  see  you,"  replied 
Comfort,  but  she  was  puzzled  what  to  do 
in  the  mean  time  with  the  lady,  for  the 
hall  was  a  dreary  place  to  stay  in,  and 
the  cook  was  washing  up  the  oil-cloth  on 
the  dining-room  floor.  "Shall  I  bring 
you  a  chair  out  of  the  parlor  to  sit  here, 
or  will  you  take  a  little  walk  and  see  the 
bird's  nest  in  the  quince  tree,  and  Toppy, 
and  Ladybird,  and  Pet,  and  Mrs.  Wad 
dle  ?"  she  asked,  with  the  natural  polite 
ness  of  a  kind  heart. 

"  I  will  take  a  walk  with  pleasure," 
said  Mrs.  Davis. 

"  Then  please  open  the  door,  for  I  can't 
reach  the  knob.  Could  your  little  girl  ?" 

"Yes,  I  think  Mary  is  tall  enough," 
replied  Mrs.  Davis,  as  she  opened  the 
door,  and,  holding  the  hand  of  her  com 
panion,  stepped  out  into  the  yard.  She 
had  only  time  enough  to  admire  the  one 
little  speckled  egg  which  had  just  been 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  75 

laid  in  the  bird's  nest,  when  Fanny  came 
in  search  of  the  visitor,  and  was  much 
surprised  to  find  where  Comfort  had 
taken  her.  "  Please  excuse  Miss  Com 
fort,"  she  said,  "she  thinks  everybody 
likes  birds'  nests  as  well  as  herself." 

"  I  have  nothing  to  excuse,"  said  Mrs. 
Davis,  kindly;  "she  was  doing  the  best 
she  could  to  amuse  me,  and  she  is  a  dear 
little  girl." 

Comfort  had  been  so  much  occupied 
in  showing  her  treasure  that  she  did  not 
see  the  carriage  at  the  gate,  but  in  turn 
ing  to  come  into  the  house  it  met  her  eye, 
and  she  exclaimed  with  delight,  "  Oh, 
what  pretty  horses,  and  what  a  nice  car-, 
riage.  You  ,can  go  everywhere  in  the 
world,  can't  you,  Mrs.  Davis?  Did  you 
ever  see  Jerusalem?" 

The  lady  smiled  at  the  question,  for 
she  saw  that  Comfort  thought  that  she 
could  ride  in  a  carriage  to  the  place  of 


76  OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT. 

which  she  spoke,  but  she  had  time  only 
to  say,  "No,  my  darling,  I  never  saw 
Jerusalem,"  before  she  was  shown  into 
Mrs.  Foster's  room. 

We  have  not  told  our  readers  how 
Mrs.  Foster  looked,  but  she  was  such 
a  nice  lady  that  they  must  have  been 
sure  that  her  appearance  was  very  plea 
sant  and  attractive.  She  was  sitting  up 
in  bed,  now,  supported  by  pillows,  with 
a  clean  cap  with  a  nicely  plaited  ruffle, 
and  she  had  on  a  dark  dressing-gown 
which  Comfort  had  never  seen  before. 

"You  must  forgive  me  for  intruding 
upon  you,"  said  Mrs.  Davis,  "  but  I  saw 
your  little  girl  on  Sunday,  and  have  been 
very  anxious  that  my  children  should 
make  her  acquaintance." 

"I  am  indebted,  then,  to  you,"  said 
Mrs.  Foster,  "for  the  invitation  to  your 
seat  in  church,  of  which  Comfort  told  me 
yesterday.  Why  did  you  not  bring  your 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  77 

children  with  you  this  morning?  I 
should  be  glad  to  see  them." 

"They  are  quite  too  noisy  for  a  sick 
room,"  replied  the  visitor,  "  and  my  hus 
band,  who  is  the  president  of  the  Gran- 
ville  Bank,  heard  from  Mr.  Foster  that 
you  were  a  great  invalid,  and  somewhat 
of  a  stranger  in  this  part  of  the  country. 
It  is  Eveline's  birth-day,  and  she  begged 
me  to  try  and  persuade  you  to  let  Com 
fort  be  among  her  guests." 

"  I  am  afraid  that  I  shall  have  to  dis 
appoint  her,"  said  Mrs:  Foster,  "for  my 
child  has  never  been  in  any  other  house 
than  this,  and  would  feel  very  strangely 
away  from  home  without  her  father  or 
myself.  What  do  you  say,  my  darling? 
Would  you  be  willing  to  go  and  see  Mrs, 
Davis'  little  girls,  with  no  one  with  you 
but  Fanny  ?" 

Comfort  did  not  know  what  to  answer, 
for  she  had  a  reason  for  wishing  to  -see 

7* 


78  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

Mrs.  Davis'  children  again,  and  yet  she 
did  not  like  to  leave  her  mother.  At 
length  she  said,  "I  don't  know,  mama, 
what  is  right.  Won't  you  please  think 
for  me  and  tell  me  what  to  do  ?" 

"I  wished,"  said  Mrs.  Davis,  "to  take 
you  home  in  my  carriage  to  pass  a  few 
hours  with  my  little  girls.  Your  father 
would  ride  back  with  you  this  evening, 
and  I  hope  that  you  would  have  a  great 
deal  to  tell  your  mother  when  you  re- 
•  turned." 

"  May  I  whisper  to  mama  ?"  said  Com 
fort,  who  felt  that  it  would  not  be  polite 
to  do  so  without  permission. 

"Certainly,  my  child,"  replied  Mrs. 
Davis,  who  was  charmed  with  the  nature 
and  simplicity  of  all  the  little  girl's  words 
and  actions. 

Comfort  clambered  up  to  her  mother's 
side,  and  putting  her  mouth  close  to  her 
ear,  said,  "Mama,  I  have  been  wanting 


OUK  LITTLE  COMFORT.  79 

to  see  those  little  girls  ever  since  Sunday. 
Perhaps  if  I  tell  them  how  good  and  kind 
our  heavenly  Father  is,  they  won't  grieve 
Him  by  acting  so  in  His  house  again. 
You  see  they  were  not  angry  at  what  "I 
said  then,  so  they  must  be  kind  little 
girls,  and  would  do  right  if  they  knew 
how.  Perhaps  their  mother  has  never 
been  sick,  and  you  know  you  told  me 
God  had  taught  you  many  things  by 
making  you  sick,  that  you  would  never 
have  known  if  you  were  well." 

While  Comfort  was  whispering  all  this, 
Mrs.  Davis  watched  her  animated  face, 
and  thought  she  was  one  of  the  loveliest 
little  beings  that  she  had  ever  seen.  Mrs. 
Foster  had  been  afraid,  at  first,  to  let 
Comfort  accept  Mrs.  Davis'  invitation, 
but  when  she  heard  what  was  her  object 
in  wishing  to  do  so,  she  felt  that  there 
was  no  fear  that  her  simple  faith  would 
be  perverted.  "You  may  go,  my  dar- 


80  OUE  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

ling,"  she  said  aloud,  "but  run  quick  and 
call  Fanny,  so  as  not  to  keep  Mrs.  Davis 
waiting.  Tell  ker  she  can  take  you  into 
her  room  to  dress  you,  and  that  she  must 
not  be  long  about  it." 

Comfort  kissed  her  mother  affection 
ately,  and  did  the  same  to  Mrs.  Davis, 
and  then  she  went  in  search  of  Fanny, 
whom  she  found  at  the  front  door,  staring 
at  the  carriage. 

"  What  are  you  to  wear,  Miss  Com 
fort?"  exclaimed  the  nurse,  with  a  puz 
zled  air.  "I  am  sure  you  have  not  got 
•a  thing  that's  fit  to  go  to  such  a  place  in." 

"Why,  Fanny,  what  are  you  thinking 
about?"  asked  Comfort,  opening  her  eyes 
in  astonishment.  "  You  know  I  have 
everything  that's  nice,  and  why  should 
I  care  more  about  my  clothes  when  I  go 
to  see  Mrs.  Davis,  than  when  I  stay  at 
home.  There  is  no  being  there  greater 
than  our  heavenly  Father,  and  no  one 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  81 

certainly  who  loves  me  so  well  as  mama." 

"But,"  said  Fanny,  "  didn't  you.  see, 
Miss  Comfort,  how  nice  she  was  dressed?" 

"  Yes,"  said  the  little  girl,  very  quietly, 
"  and  so  were  her  children,  but  that's  just 
the  reason,  maybe,  why  they  don't  think 
more  about  heaven,  and  I  am  glad  I  have 
no  fine  clothes  if  they  would  make  me 
want  to  stay  in  this  world  away  from  the 
good  Grod  and  my  dear  little  sisters." 

Fanny  could  not  understand  how  any 
body  could  be  thankful  that  they  had  not 
beautiful  things  to  wear,  and  she  grum 
bled  to  herself  all  the  while  that  she  was 
dressing  Comfort,  because  she  was  afraid 
that  her  darling  would  not  look  as  well 
as  the  little  people  that  she  was  going  to 
meet. 

When  she  had  finished  hooking  the 
same  blue  dress  that  Comfort  wore  every 
day,  and  which  she  had  only  taken  off  to 
put  on  clean  pantalettes,  the  little  girl 


82  OUE  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

said  eagerly,  "Now,  Fanny,  please  run 
in  the  garden  and  get  me  all  the  prettiest 
flowers  that  you  can  find.  There  are  two 
or  three  sweet  white  jonquils,  and  ever  so 
majiy  white  and  blue  violets." 

"Pray,  Miss  Comfort,  what  do  you 
want  of  them  ?"  asked  Fanny,  in  astonish 
ment. 

"You'll  see,"  said  Comfort,  looking 
very  mysterious.  When  Fanny  returned 
with  the  flowers,  and  some  periwinkle 
that  grew  on  the  bank  by  the  house, 
Comfort  twisted  them  into  two  little 
wreaths,  and  put  them  inside  of  her 
white  hat,  just  as  she  had  seen  some 
artificial  flowers  in  the  bonnets  that  Mrs. 
Davis'  little  children  wore.  "You  see, 
Fanny,"  she  said,  "  that  I  want  to  show 
those  little  girls  how  much  prettier  things 
are  that  God  makes,  than  any  others. 
You  know  He  told  us  to  look  at  the 
flowers  of  the  field  and  see  how  beautiful 


OUR  LITTLE  COMPORT.  83 

they  were,  and  that  would  teach  us  to. 
take  no  thought  about  our  dress.  These 
are  sweet  flowers,  and  anybody  could  not 
look  at  them  without  thinking  that  the 
finest  clothes  in  the  world  were  not  half 
as 'beautiful." 

As  soon  as  Comfort  went  into  her 
mother's  room,  Mrs.  Foster  noticed  the 
new  ornament  in  her  little  white  hat,  but 
she  did  not  say  anything  about  it,  and 
Mrs.  Davis  only  thought  how  sweetly  the 
violets  looked,  peeping  out  among  her 
golden  curls.  Comfort  bade  her  mother 
good-bye,  as  if  she  were  going  away  for 
a  year,  and  Mrs.  Foster  could  not  help 
sighing  as  the  bright  little  creature  van 
ished  from  her  sight. 


84  OUR  LITTLE  COMFOKT. 


CHAPTER  V. 

IT  would  be  difficult  to  say  whether 
Mrs.  Davis  or  her  little  companion  most 
enjoyed  their  drive  to  Granville,  so  much 
was  that  kind-hearted  lady  pleased  with 
Comfort's  remarks  and  evident  delight 
at  all  that  she  saw  and  heard.  It  was  the 
first  time  that  the  child  had  ever  been 
in  a  carriage  of  any  kind,  and  she  felt 
almost  as  if  they  were  flying  over  the 
ground,  for  the  road  was  very  smooth, 
and  the  horses  knew  that  they  were  going 
home.  She  was  very  much  mortified 
when  Mrs.  Davis  said,  "  Here  we  are," 
for  it  hardly  seemed  a  moment  since  they 
started,  and  on  Sunday,  Granville  had 
appeared  quite  a  journey.  The  house 
at  which  the  carriage  stopped,  was  a  very 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  85 

handsome  stone  one,  in  the  midst  of  a 
beautiful  yard,  filled  with  evergreens. 
There  were  no  such  trees  near  Mr. 
Foster's,  and  Comfort  thought  that  they 
had  put  on  their  leaves  before  all  their 
companions,  and  wondered  what  made 
them  so  early.  Mrs.  Davis  told  her  that 
they  were  green  all  winter,  and  looked 
beautifully  when  they  were  covered 
with  snow,  and  she  picked  off  some  of 
the  long  needle-shaped  leaves,  to  show 
her  how  stiff  they  were,  and  what  it 
was  that  made  the  brown  carpet  that 
covered  the  yard. 

At  that  moment  the  door  of  the  house 
opened,  and  a  whole  troop  of  little  girls 
came  running  down  the  steps,  all  nicely 
dressed  and  looking  very  happy.  Eve 
line  Davis  was  the  foremost,  and  she 
came  right  to  her  little  visitor,  and  tak 
ing  her  by  the  hand,  said, — 

"  Oh,   I  am  so  glad    that    you  have 

8 


86  OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT. 

come;  Mary  said  that  she1  didn't  believe 
your  mother  would  let  you,  but  I  was 
almost  sure  that  you  would  have  your 
own  way." 

"  Oh,  I  can  always  do  that,"  said  Com 
fort,  "for  mama's  way  is  my  way,  and 
[  want  to  do  just  what  she  tells  me. 
How  happy  you  must  be  to  live  in  such 
a  pretty  place,  where  the  trees  are  green 
all  the  year !  Do  the  birds  build  their 
nests  in  these  trees  in  the  winter  ?" 
'  "No,  my  darling,"  said  Mrs.  Davis, 
smiling,  "but  I  will  show  you  a  place 
where  they  live  all  the  year ;"  so  saying, 
she  led  Comfort  around  the  porch  to  a 
circular  conservatory,  which  made  a  wing 
on  one  side  of  the  house,  and  -opening 
the  glass  door,  told  her  to  go  in  and  see 
her  bird's  nest. 

Comfort  did  not  need  a  second  invita- 
tation,  for  she  had  never  seen  such  an 
enchanting  place.  The  glass  roof  was 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  87 

so  high,  that  some  quite  large  trees  which 
were  planted  in  the  earth  in  the  centre 
of  the  green-house  did  not  reach  it,  and 
some  of  these  were  both  full  of  fruit 
and  flowers  at  the  same  time.  There 
were  stands  covered  with  beautiful  and 
fragrant  plants,  all  in  blossom  around  the 
sides,  and  among  those  there  were  cages 
in  which  bright-colored  birds  were  mer 
rily  singing. 

"  Here  is  my  little  canary's  nest,"  said 
Mrs.  Davis,  calling  Comfort  to  a  cage 
which  was  hanging  over  some  white  hya 
cinths,  that  had  just  come  out.  Thus 
saying,  she  lifted  the  little  girl  up  so  that 
she  could  see  the  dearest  little  nest  in 
the  corner  of  the  cage,  -in  which  there 
were  two  tiny  birds  with  their  mouths 
wide  open,  waiting  to  be  fed.  The 
mother  was  sitting  on  a  perch  over  them, 
and  had  a  little  .insect  in  her  bill,  with 
which  she  was  going  to  feejl  one  of  them, 


88  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

and  the  male  bird  was  singing  at  the  top 
of  the  cage.  . 

All  the  little  girls  who  had  followed 
Mrs.  Davis  into  the  conservatory,  were 
loud  in  their  expressions  of  delight,  but 
Comfort  stood  looking  at  them  in  silence, 
with  her  blue  eyes  sparkling  with  pleas 
ure.  One  of  the  visitors,  named  Anna 
Lathrop,  asked,  hesitatingly,  whether 
canary  -birds  liked  to  be  shut  up  in  a 
cage,  and  seemed  quite  relieved  to  hear 
that  they  were  let "  out  every  morning, 
and  always  came  back  of  their  own 
accord. 

"Oh,  how  much  good'  it  would  do 
mama  to  come  here!"  exclaimed  Com 
fort,  at  last.  "Was  not  the  garden  of 
Eden  just  such  a  place,  Mrs.  Davis?" 

"What  makes  you  think -so?"  asked 
that  lady,  kindly. 

"Because,"  answered  Comfort,  "you 
know  that  it  had  every  kind  of  tree  and' 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  89 

flower,  and  mama  told  me  that  she 
thought  it  was  always  warm  there,  and 
there  were  blossoms  and  fruit  at  the 
same  time,  and  that's  just  the  way  here. 
Oh,  I  wish  I  was  Eve,  and  had  a  chance 
to  try  again  whether  I  would  be  good !" 

The  little  girls  stared  at  Comfort,  when 
she  said  this,  and  Mary  Davis  was  so  rude 
as  to  whisper  to  Jane  Campbell,— 

"  I  told  you  she  was  a  queer  little  thing, 
and  talked  and  acted  just  like  an  old 
woman." 

Her  mother  did  not  hear  this  remark, 
but  Anna  Lathrop  did,  and  she  was  afraid 
that  Comfort  might  do  the  same,  so  she 
stepped  up,  to  her  side,  and  putting  her 
arm  around  her  waist,  said,  affectionately, 

"If  you  were  Eve,  I  don't  believe  you 
would  be  naughty,  and  pick  the  fruit 
that  you  were  forbidden  to  touch." 

"I  am  afraid  I  should,"  said  Comfort. 
"  I  did  not  think  how  easy  it  was  to  do 

8* 


90  OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT. 

wrong  when  I  said  so.  I  have  some 
times  touched  things  that  mother  told 
me  to  leave  alone,  and  you  know  that 
was  just  as  bad." 

"  Oh,  Mrs.  Davis,  do"  tell  me  what  this 
is,"  said  a  little  girl  named  Etta  Alston, 
who  was  bending  over  a  most  singular 
plant. 

•  "It  is  called  the  side-saddle  flower, 
and  sometimes  the  pitcher-plant,"  re 
plied  Mrs.  Davis,  as  the  children  all  ran 
to  the  spot.  "  That  green  cup  holds 
water  for  a  great  while,  for  the  birds  to 
drink,  and  the  lip  of  it  is  covered  with 
a  kind  of  gum,  so  that  the  insects  who 
alight  upon  it  cannot  creep  off,  and  some 
times  many  of  them  are  drowned.  There 
is  another  kind,  which  has  a  lid  to  the 
pitcher,  and  the  water  that  it  holds  is 
kept  so  clear  that  travellers  drink  it  to 
quench  their  thirst." 

"How  curious!"  exclaimed  Anna  Lath- 


OUK  LITTLE  COMFOKT.  91 

rop.  "  Oh,  here  is  such  a  strange  plant ! 
I  just  touched  a  leaf  of  it,  and  it  shut 
right  up,  as  if  it  were  afraid  of  me. 
What  made  it  do  so,  Mrs.  Davis  ?" 

"  That  is  called  a  sensitive  plant,  and 
it  always  closes  when  it  is  touched,  just 
as  some  little  children  become  very  still 
when  a  stranger  speaks  to  them.  But 
what  ails  my  little  Comfort  ?  you  are 
very  silent,  darling,  are  you  tired  ?" 

"Oh,  no,  ma'am,"  answered  Comfort, 
looking  up  in  her  friend's  face  very  grate 
fully,  but  still  there  was  a  sad  expres 
sion  upon  her  sweet  countenance. 

"  What  troubles  you,  then,  my  dear  ?" 
continued  Mrs.  Davis.  "  Tell  me  what 
you  were  thinking  about,  just  as  if  I 
were  your  mama." 

Comfort  hesitated  a  moment,  and  then 
taking  off  her  hat,  untwined  her  little 
wreaths  which  she  had  fixed  into  it,  and 
handed  the  fading,  but  still  sweet  violets, 


92  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

to  Mrs.  Davis,  saying,  in  a  mournful  tone 
of  voice, —  * 

"  They  will  be  of  no  use." 

The  lady  did  not  understand  what 
Comfort  was  thinking  about,  but  im 
agined  that  on  seeing  so  many  beautiful 
flowers,  she  had  become  discontented 
with  those  which  had  before  seemed  to 
her  so  pretty. 

"Violets  are  always  sweet,"  she  said, 
as  she  smefled  the  drooping  flowers,  "but 
you  shall  take  home  a  boquet  of  any 
that  you  wish,  to  your  mother ;  would 
you  like  to  do  so  ?" 

"  Oh,  yes,"  exclaimed  Comfort,  her 
eyes  dancing  with  joy;  but  a  moment 
after  the  same  sober  expression  came 
back  to  her  face,  and  she  added, — 

"Indeed  I  was  not  thinking  that  I 
wished  for  any  prettier  flowers  than  those 
that  grow  at  home.  They  always  teach 
me  something,  and  I  brought  them  to 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  93 

ahow  to  jour  little  girls,  because  I  thought 
that  they  had  never  seen  '  God's  youngest 
children,'  as  mama  calls  them." 

At  these  words  the  little  girls  crowded 
around  the  stranger,  wondering  what  she 
was  talking  about,  but  they  all  looked 
kindly  at  her,  excepting  Mary  Davis,  who 
felt  quite  vexed  that  any  one  should 
think  she  was  so  ignorant. 

"  And  what  lesson  have  these  little 
violets  taught  you,  my  rose-bud?"  said 
Mrs.  Davis,  as  she  stooped  to  kiss  the 
blushing  cheek  of  the  now  embarrassed 
little  girl. 

At  that  moment,  Comfort  thought  of 
something  that  her  mother  had  once  said 
about  never  being  ashamed  of  anything 
that  she  thought  or  did,  that  was  right. 
She  felt,  suddenly,  as  if  her  heavenly 
Father  were  standing  right  at  her  side, 
and  saying,  "  Fear  not,  little  one,"  so  she 
looked  up  again  with  her  usual  trustful, 


94  OUK  LITTLE   COMFORT. 

earnest  air,  and  said  frankly,  "  I  will  tell 
you  why  I  put  these  flowers  in  my  hat 
when  I  came  here.  Mama  says  that  the 
reason  why  she  thinks  so  much  about  God 
and  heaven  is  because  she  is  sick,  and 
that  is  why  she  talks  about  them  to  me 
all  the  while.  Your  little  girls  did  not 
act  on  Sunday  as  if  they  knew  what  a 
kind  Father  they  had  in  heaven,  and  I 
thought  perhaps  you  had  been  so  well 
and  so  busy  that  you  had  not  had  time 
to  read  His  Book,  or  tell  them  what  He 
liked.  But  the  flowers  have  taught  me 
almost  as  much  as  mama,  and  when  I  see 
how  quick  they  fade,  and  how  pretty 
they  are,  I  think  about  the  verse  that 
says  the  beauty  of  man  must  wither  just 
so,  and  of  another  that  tells  us  to  consider 
them,  and  not  think  about  our  clothes. 
I  thought,  that  if  Mary  and  Eveline  could 
see  the  pretty  things  that  God  makes, 
they  would  not  be  proud  of  wearing  fine 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFOET.  95 

colors,  and  so  I  brought  these  flowers  to 
show  them  to-day.  When  I  came  here 
and  saw  that  they  could  look,  every  day, 
at  such  beautiful  plants  and  birds,  and 
yet  did  not  love  and  praise  Him,  it 
made  me  very  sad,  and  I  said  to  myself, 
'It's  no  use  showing  my  violets,'  and  I 
couldn't  think  of  any  way  to  persuade 
them  that  God  was  good." 

This  was  a  very  long  speech  for  little 
Comfort  to  make,  and  when  she  got  , 
through  she  cast  down  her  eyelids,  and 
stood  looking  modest  and  thoughtful, 
but  not  in  the  least  ashamed.  Mary 
Davis  took  Jane  Campbell  by  the  arm, 
and  went  out  of  the  green-house,  whis 
pering  to  her,  "  I  wish  mother  had  left 
that  preaching  little  thing  at  home.  We 
don't  behave  any  worse  at  church  than 
other  children,  but  she  seems  to  think 
we  are  dreadful  wicked  just  because  we 
laughed  and  talked  a  little." 


96  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

But  Eveline  Davis  did  not  follow  her 
sister,  for  she  was  naturally  a  gentle, 
sweet  child,  and  was  really  interested 
in  what  Comfort  said.  She  put  her  arm 
around  her  neck,  and  whispered,  "You 
shall  teach  me  to  be  better,  but,  indeed, 
mama  has  often  told  us  about  what  is 
right,  but  we  are  naughty  children 
sometimes." 

Comfort  kissed  her  new  friend  warmly, 
and  said  eagerly,  "  Does  your  mother  talk 
to  you  about  such  things  ?  Well !  I 
thought  she  must  be  a  good  lady.  Now 
I  know  what  mama  meant,  when  she 
said  good  children  honored  their  parents. 
If  we  don't  do  right,  people  think  that 
nobody  has  taught  us  any  better.  Don't 
they,  Eveline  ?" 

"I  am  afraid  they  do,"  said  the  little 
girl,  looking  ashamed.  "  I  never  thought 
though,  before,  that  any  one  would  not 
know  that  mama  was  good,  if  I  did  not 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  97 

behave  well.  I  will  try  and  act  so  as  to 
honor  her  more." 

While  the  little  girls  were  having  this 
conversation,  Anna  Lathrop  and  Etta 
Alston  were  looking  at  a  very  curious 
cactus ;  and  Mrs.  Davis  was  telling  them 
that  the  night-blooming  cereus  was  of 
the  same  family,  and  how  it  inclosed  its 
leaves  in  darkness  and  faded  before  day 
light.  They  were  very  much  interested 
in  what  she  said,  ]put  they  were  inter 
rupted  by  Mary  Davis,  who  came  back 
to  the  greenhouse,  and  called  out,  im 
patiently,  "Do  come  and  play,  girls — 
we  are  not  having  any  fun,  at  all.  Jane 
wants  to  skip  the  rope;  but  I  say,  let  us 
have  a  game  of  blind-man's-buff." 

Comfort  had  never  heard  of  either 
of  these  games  before ;  and  had  never 
played  with  any  children  in  her  life ;  but 
she  was  ready  to  do  just  what  pleased  the 
rest,  and  Mrs.  Davis  proposed  that  they 


98  OUK  LITTLE   COMFOET. 

should  skip  the  rope,  to  suit  Jane  Camp 
bell,  in  the  piazza ;  and  then  she  went  in 
the  house. 

As  Comfort  did  not  know  how  to 
skip,  she  preferred  to  turn  the  rope;  and 
Eveline  took  the  other  end,  because  she 
was  the  same  height,  while  Jane  and 
Mary  stood  together  and  went  over  it 
without  tripping,  till  they  were  quite  out 
of  breath.  Then  Etta  and  Anna  tried  to 
do  the  same,  but  they  were  younger ;  and 
the  first  turn  of  the  rope  carried  off  one 
of  Etta's  little  bronze  slippers,  and  at  the 
next  attempt,  it  caught  under  Anna's 
chin. 

When  Comfort  and  Eveline  had  turned 
for  others,  till  their  arms  were  tired, 
Comfort  tried  to  learn  to  skip ;  but  her 
long  gray  pelisse  caught  at  the  first 
jump,  and  so  Eveline  proposed  that  she 
should  go  in  the  house  and  change  it  for 
a  shawl  of  her  own,  which  she  offered  to 


OUR   LITTLE   COMFORT.  99 

lend  her.  When  they  came  back,  they 
found  that  Mary  Davis  had  been  blind 
folded;  and  the  rest  were  waiting  for 
them  to  make  a  ring  round  her,  and 
play  "Stero,  stero,  stop." 

When  the  little  circle  had  gone  round 
three  times,  Mary  called  out,  "  Stop,"  and 
then  pointing  at  Comfort  with  a  stick, 
said,  "  Say  Massachusetts."  Comfort  did 
not  know  that  she  was  to  try  and  conceal 
her  voice,  so  she  said  "Massachusetts" 
very  plain,  and  of  course  Mary  knew  who 
it  was.  Then  Comfort  was  blinded,  and. 
it  was  a  long  time  before  sh^  could  guess 
who  any  of  the  children  were,  but  at  last 
she  stopped  at  Eveline,  and  knew  her 
voice.  Soon  after,  Mrs.  Davis  called 
them  into  the  house,  and  then  they 
went  into  the  dining-room  to  partake 
of  Eveline's  birth-day  feast.- 

The  table  at  which  the  children  all  sat 
down,  did  not  look  .like  any  that  Comfort. 


100  OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT. 

hg,d  ever  seen,  for.  the  dishes  belonged  to 
a  new  set  which  Eveline's  father  had  just 
given  her  .for  a  present,  and  many  of 
them  held  beautiful  confectionery  and 
jelly  that  was  as  clear  as  amber.  Com 
fort  was  .  so  busy  in  admiring  a  little 
pyramid  made  of  different  colored  can 
dies,  that  she  had  forgotten  that  any  of 
these  pretty  things  were  to  be  eaten  till 
Mrs.  Davis  said, 

"What  will  you  have,  my  dear?  The 
other  children  are  all  helped." 

"  Indeed  I  can't  tell,"  replied  Comfort, 
smiling,  "for  I  don't  know  what  you 
call  these  nice  dishes,  and  I  never  tasted 
them.  "Won't  you  please  to  give  me 
what  you  think  best ;  I  am  sure  they 
are  all  good." 

"Oh,  mama,  give  her  some  cream 
candy  and  some  fruit  cake,"  cried  out 
Eveline,  from  the  head  of  the  table,  where 
she  was  seated  in  honor  of  her  birthday. 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  101 

"  I  know  you'll  like  them,  Comfort,  for  I 
always  want  to  eat  them  till  I  am  sick." 

"  Then,  perhaps,  I  had-  better  not  try 
them,"  answered  Comfort,  very  simply, 
"for  mama  would  feel  troubled  if  I 
should  not  be  well  when  I  go  home, 
and,  besides,  she  thinks  it  is  dreadful 
for  little  girls  to  make  themselves  sick 
eating.  She  told  me  one  day  that  it  was 
almost  as  bad  as  for  men  to  drink  too 
much." 

"She  is  very  right,"  said  Mrs.  Davis, 
"and  I  do  not  mean  that  you  shall  go 
home  the  worse  for  your  visit.  Here  is 
a  biscuit  and  some  cold  tongue,  for  you 
must  be  hungry  after  being  in  the  air  so 
long.  When  you  have  eaten  that,  I  will 
give  you  some  sponge  cake,  which  will 
not  hurt  you,  and  Eveline  will  pick  out 
some  pretty  mottoes  and  bon-bons  for  you 
to  carry  home." 

Comfort  thanked  Mrs.  Davis,  and  was 


102  OUR   LITTLE   COMFORT. 

quite  contented  with,  the  choice  she  had 
made,  but  she  thought  to  herself  that  it 
was  very  strange  such  a  kind  lady  should 
have  put  anything  on  the  table  that  was 
not  good  for  little  children.  She  won 
dered,  too,  what  her  mama  would  think 
of  a  little  pile  of  good  things  by  Jane 
Campbell's  plate,  for  every  time  any 
thing  was  offered  to  the  latter  she  took 
some  and  laid  it  down  as  if  she  were 
afraid  that  she  would  not  have  another 
chance.  All  at  once  it  entered  her  head 
that  Jane  was  saving  those  things  to  give 
away,  and  she  said,  in  a  low  voice,  "  Are 
you  going  to  give  these  cakes  and  candies 
to  some  poor  little  girl  who  never  has  had 
any  ?  If  you  are,  she  may  have  mine  too 
that  Mrs.  Davis  said  she  would  give  me 
to  carry  home."  . 

Jane  blushed  at  this  innocent  remark, 
and  muttered  the  words,  "little  simple 
ton,"  but  Comfort  did  not  know  what  she 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  103 

meant,  and  thought  that  was  the  name 
of  some  child  for  whom  she  had  been 
heaping  up  nice  things.  Mrs.  Davis, 
however,  had  heard  the  artless  remark, 
and  she  thought  it  right  to  show  Jane 
that  she  observed  her  rudeness,  by  say 
ing,  "Do  you  know  any  poor  little,  girl, 
Comfort,  who  would  like  to  taste  such 
things?" 

"I  am  not  sure,"  said  Comfort,  "that 
I  do,  but  there  is  one  who  plays  in  the 
lane  behind  our  house,  who  never  has 
any  stockings  or  shoes,  and  once  she  came 
in  the  kitchen  to  ask  for  bread,  and  if 
she  could  not  get  enough  of  that,  maybe 
she  would  like  some  cake.  I  think, 
though,  she  would  like  biscuit  better,  for 
mama  says  it  is  more  healthy." 

"  How  much  that  mother  of  hers  must 
talk,"  whispered  Mary  Davis,  who  was 
sitting  the  other  side  of  Jane  Campbell. 
"  I  am  afraid  she  will  injure  herself  talk- 


104  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

• 

ing  so  much,  for  every  other  word  is, 
*  mama  says.' " 

"  For  shame,  Mary,"  said  Eveline  in  a 
low  tone,  "  she  is  my  visitor,  and  you 
sha'n't  treat  her  badly." 

"Sha'n't,  indeed,"  said  Mary,  aloud; 
"  I  should  'like  to  know  who  made  you 
my  mistress." 

"What,  quarrelling!"  exclaimed  Mrs. 
Davis,  looking  very  much  displeased. 
*I  am  quite  ashamed  of  you,  Mary;  if 
you  cannot  behave  better,  you  must  leave 
the  table." 

Mary  made  no  reply,  but  she  sat  pout 
ing  till  all  the  children  had  finished  eat 
ing,  and  then  she  went  out  in  the  porch 
with  Jane  Campbell,  and  said  she  wished 
that  hateful  little  Comfort  Foster  was 
where  she  came  from,  for  that  she  had 
spoiled  all  her  pleasure.  Eveline  now 
asked  the  rest  of  the  children  if  they 
would  like  to  see  her  books,  and  carried 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  105 

them  to  the  nursery,  where  there  was 
quite  a  little  library.  • 

Comfort  had  never  dreamed  that  any 
body  could  be  so  rich,  and  did  not  know 
which  of  the  pretty  volumes  to  look  at 
first.  Eveline  was  much  pleased  by  her 
sincere  admiration,  and  said  kindly, — 

"Pick  out  any  that  you  like,  and  I 
will  lend  them  to  you.  to  read.1' 

"  Cfh,  how  kind,"  exclaimed  Comfort, 
and  she  fairly  jumped  up  and  down,  and 
clapped  her  hands  for  joy.  But  the  se 
lection  was  no  easy  matter,  for  the  books 
were  very  well  chosen,  and  all  looked  so 
interesting,  and  were  so  full  of  pretty 
pictures,  that  Comfort  was  much  more 
puzzled  than  she  had  been  at  dinner. 
She  opened  one,  named  "  The  Two  Gar 
dens,"  to  see  how  she  should  like  it, 
and  became  so  interested  that  she  forgot 
where  she  was,  and  felt  as  if  she  had  been 
dreaming,  when  Eveline  said,  at  last, — 


106  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

"If  you  had  rather  read  than  play, 
Comfort,  you  can  sjay  here  with  Hannah  ; 
she  is  our  nurse,  and  will  be  very  good 
to  you,  and  I  would  stay  myself,  but 
mama  would  not  like  to  have  me  leave 
my  company." 

This  was  a  very  tempting  offer,  but 
Comfort  thought,  I  came  here  to  see 
Eveline,  and  I  ought  to  please  her  and 
not  myself,  so  she  laid  down  the  4>ook 
cheerfully,  saying, — 

"  Oh,  no !  we'll  go  and  play  now,  and 
then  if  your  mother  is  willing  I  can  read 
this  pretty  book  to  mama.  It  is  about 
1  The  Two  Gardens'  in  the  beginning  and 
end  of  the  Bible.  Don't  you  wish  that 
we  were  going  to  run  about  in  those 
golden  streets,  and  could  see  those  beau 
tiful  gates  of  pearl  ?" 

"Why,  you  must  have  been  reading  a 
fairy  story,"  said  Etta  Alston.  "  I  never 
saw  anything  like  it  in  my  Bible,  and  I 


OUR   LITTLE  COMFORT.  107 

say  six  verses  at  Sunday  school  every 
Sunday." 

"  Oh,  yes,  there  is,"  said  Eveline,  "  for 
I  have  read  it  in  tKe  book  Comfort  has 
just  laid  down.  If  it  was  not  in  the 
Bible  I  should  not  believe  there  could 
be  a  pearl  big  enough  to  make  a  gate, 
for  mama  has  what  she  calls  a  very  large 
one,  and  it  is  only  as  big  as  her  thumb 
nail." 

"How  I  should  like  to  see  it,"  said 
Comfort,  "  I  never  saw  a  pearl." 

"  Well,  let  us  come  into  mother's  room, 
and  I  dare  say  she  will  show  you  all 
her  jewels.  Would  you  -like  to  see  them, 
Anna,  and  you,  too,  Etta?" 

Both  the  little  girls  declared  that  they 
should  be  delighted  if  Mrs.  Davis  would 
show  them  her  ornaments,  and  as  soon  as 
Eveline  told  her  mother  what  she  wanted, 
the  request  was  granted. 

Etta  tried  the  rings  on  to  her  fingers, 


108  OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT. 

and  Anna  hoped  that  she  would  have 
some  when  she  had  grown  up,  that  were 
like  them,  but  Comfort  was  thinking  of 
something  very  different.  When  Eveline 
spoke  of  her  mother's  jewels,  she  thought 
of  the  text  about  the  day  "that  God 
should  make  up  His  jewels,"  and  won 
dered  what  her  heavenly  Father  could 
think  were  as  precious  as  men  considered 
these  beautiful  stones.  She  did  not  know 
that  human  souls  were  called  jewels  by 
that  great  and  good  Being,  and  that,  per 
haps,  He  gave  them  this  name  because 
it  cost  so  much  to  buy  them.  The  little 
girl  thought  that  the  large  pearl  was  very 
beautiful,  for  it  looked  so  pure,  and  she 
did  not  wonder  that  religion  was  called 
the  "  goodly  pearl."  After  she  had  tried 
to  imagine  how  a  gate  would  look,  just 
as  white  and  clear,  she  remembered  that 
she  had  read  that  the  foundations  of  the 
'  new  Jerusalem  were  made  of  precious, 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  109 

stones,  and  she  began  to  wonder  whether 
Mrs.  Davis  had  any  of  the  kind  that 
were  mentioned.  The  only  name  that 
she  remembered  was  an  emerald,  and  she 
asked  Mrs.  Davis  very  politely  if  she  had 
any  stone  of  that  kind,  and  then  Mrs. 
Davis  showed  her  a  very  beautiful  green 
one,  which  was  set  in  a  ring,  and  in 
quired  how  she  came  to  think  of  it. 
Comfort  mentioned  then  how  much  she 
liked  to  read  about  the  beautiful  city, 
where  her  little  brothers  -and  sisters  had 
gone  to  live,  and  that  she  had  often  won 
dered  how  the  precious  stones  looked 
around  the  walls.  Mrs.  Davis  had  for 
gotten  what  the  -names  of  these  stones 
were,  but  she  gave  %Comfort  a  Bible  to 
look  for  the  place,  and  then  looked  to 
see  if  she  had  any  of  the  rest.  Com 
fort  was  delighted  when  she  showed  her 
a  jasper,  which  was  a  yellow  stone  some 
thing  like  gold,  and  a  topaz  that  was 
1  10 


.  . 


110  OUE  LITTLE   CQMFOET. 

more  of  an  orange  and  very  transparent, 
and  a  purple  amethyst,  set  round  with 
chrysolites. 

"  Oh,  must  not  heaven  be  beautiful  ?" 
exclaimed  Comfort,  looking  as  if  in  im 
agination  she  saw  the  shining  walls ; 
"and  just  think,  Harry  and  Kate  have 
golden  crowns  and  are  always  with  Grod, 
"and  the  Blessed  Saviour." 

Mrs.  Davis  wished  that  her  own  faith 
was  as  bright  as  that  of  the  child,  for 
she  had  once  lost  a  little  girl,  and  had 
the  same  reason  for  believing  that  she 
was  an  inhabitant  of  that  beautiful  city 
which  Comfort  loved  so  much  to  think 
about.  Just  as  the  jewel  box  was  being 
closed, ;  Comfort  said, — 

"Oh,  please,  stop  a  moment;  you  know 
that  pretty  thing  that  the  high  priest 
wore  on  his  breast  was  made  of  jewels. 
Will  you  please  find  the  place,  and  see 
if  you  have  any  of  them.  I  don't  know 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  Ill 

where  it  is,  for  I  only  read  the  chapters 
there  that  mama  chooses." 

Mrs.  Davis  could  not  turn  directly  to 
the  place,  but  at  length  she  found  the 
verse  with  the  names  of  the  twelve  stones, 
in  each  of  which  there  was  engraven 
the  name  of  one  of  the  tribes  of  Israel. 
She  had  five  of  the  stones  that  were  men 
tioned,  and  three  were  the  same  that 
were  in  the  account  of  the  beautiful  city. 
The  others  were  an  agate  and  a  diamond, 
but  she  did  not  even  know  what  was 
the  color  of  an  onyx,  or  a  carbuncle. 

The  other  little  girls  had  all  become 
much  interested  in  hearing  about  these 
precious  stones,  and  wondered  how  it 
was  that  they  did  not  find  such  interest 
ing  things  in  the  Bible  as  their  little 
companion.  The  time  had  passed  so 
quickly,  that  they  were  very  much  sur 
prised  when  a  servant  came  and  said 
that  Mr.  Foster  was  below,  and  the  car- 


112  OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT. 

riage  was  all  ready,  waiting  to  take  Coin- 
fort  home. 

The  moment  that  she  heard  her  father's 
name,  the  little  girl  sprang  to  the  door, 
and  runnifig  down  stairs,  threw  herself 
into  his  arms  without  ever  noticing  that 
there  was  anybody  else  in  the  room. 
Eveline  followed  as  quickly  as  she  could, 
with  her  little  visitors,  and  Mrs.  Davis, 
in  a  few  moments,  came  after  them  with 
a  paper  of  candies"  and  bon  bons  in  her 
hand,  and  *  some  cakes  for  Comfort  to 
give  away. 

"  Oh*  father,  they  are  so  kind  to  me  1" 
said  Comfort,  as  she  seized  the  end 
of 'his  ear-trumpet,  "won't  you  thank 
them,  and  can't  Eveline  come  and  see 
me." 

"  Certainly,  my  dear,  if  Mrs.  Davis  will 
allow  her  to  _do  so,"  said  the  delighted 
father;  and  then  Mrs.  Davis  told  him 
that  his  little  daughter  had  behaved  per- 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFOET.  113 

fectly  well,  and-  that  she,  should  always 
be  happy  to  see  her  ;  she  then  whispered 
to  Eveline,  who  went  out  of  the  room 
and  came  back  with  a  beautiful  boquet, 
which  was  for  Mrs.  Foster,  and  then  she 
sent  for  Mary,  who  had  been  off  with 
Jane  Campbell  in  another  room,  ever 
since  the  feast.  Mary  came  in,  looking 
very  cross,  but  she  did  not  dare  to  be 
rude  again  to  Comfort,  who  asked  her 
if  she  would  not  come  and  see  her,  and 
then  Mr.  Foster  told  her  it  was  time  to 
go.  Mrs.  Davis  tied  her  hat,  and  put  on 
the  gray  pelisse,  and  said,  as  she  kissed 
her  at  parting,  that  she  should  love  her 

almost  as  well  as  her  own  children. 
10* 


114  OUR  LITTLE  COMPORT. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  night  after  her  visit  to  Granville, 
Comfort  could  not  sleep.  She  turned  over 
and  over,  till  she  grew  so  restless  at  last, 
that  she  called  out,  in  a  low  voice, — 

"  Mama,  mama  1" 

"What  is  it,  my  darling?"  asked  Mrs. 
Foster,  who  was  awake,  in  an  anxious 
voice. 

"  Oh,  nothing,  mama,  only  I  cannot 
sleep,  and  I  wanted  to  ask  you  not  to 
let  me  go  and  see  Mrs.  Davis  again.'- 

"  "Why  not  ?"  inquired  Mrs.  Foster,  in 
surprise ;  "I  thought  that  you  had  had 
a  very  pleasant  day." 

"So  I  had,  mama,  but  when  I  came 
to  say  my  prayers  to-night,  I  could  not 
think  what  I  was  about,  and  I  don't  feel 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  115 

right  now.  I  don't  understand  it  at  all, 
mama  dear." 

"  You  are  tired,  my  darling,"  said  her 
mother,  soothingly ,  "go  to  sleep,  and  to 
morrow  you  will  think  differently." 

"  But,  mama,  as  soon  as  I  close  my 
eyes,  instead  of  thinking  about  seeing  the 
beautiful  city,  I  imagine  that  you  and  I 
are  living  in  a  house  like  Mrs.  Davis, 
with  all  those  pretty  flowers,  and  a 
library  full  of  nice  books,  like  those  Eve 
line  showed  me.  Is  it  right  to  go  any 
where  that  makes  us  think  less  of  heaven, 
mama?" 

"  Certainly  not,  my  child,  if  we  can 
help  it,  but  if  we  carry  a  pure  heart  every 
where,  no  place  can  do  us  any  harm." 

"  Then  I  am  afraid  that  my  heart  is 
not  pure,"  replied  Comfort,  in  a  very 
sorrowful  tone,  for  she  had  often  heard 
her  mama  say,  that  the  pure  in  heart 
should  see  God. 


116  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

"  Then,  dearest,"  said  her  mother,  ten 
derly,  "you  can  ask  your  heavenly 
Father  to  make  it  so,  and  when  you  have 
done  this,  try  and  go  to  sleep." 

Comfort  -did  as  her  mother  told  her, 
and  in  a  few  moments  she  was  dream 
ing  that  she  was  walking  with  her  sister 
Kate  and  Eveline  Davis  in  one  of  the 
golden  streets  of  the  new  Jerusalem,  and 
Eveline  had  on  a  crown,  set  with  dia 
monds,  while  her  own  had  one  great  pearl 
in  the  middle  of  it,  and  around  the  bor 
der  were  engraved  the  words,  "Blessed 
are  the  pure  in  heart."  The  trees  that 
they  saw  were  much  more  beautiful  than 
those  in  the  conservatory,  and  birds  of 
every  color  were  building  nests  in  their 
branches,  and  fruit  hung  on  all  the 
boughs  as  clear  as  crystal  and  delicious 
in  taste.  But  the  most  beautiful  thing 
in  this  lovely  place  was  a  throne  of  gold, 
on  which  sat  a  Being  that  looked  as  the 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  117 

little  girl  had  often  pictured  her  Saviour, 
and  He  was  saying,  in  a  very  gentle 
voice,  "  Suffer  little  children  to  come 
unto  me  and  forbid  them  not." 

The  whole  dream  was  a  very  sweet 
one,  and  such  as  no  child  could  have  had 
who  had  not  very  often  thought  about 
such  things  in  her  waking  hours.  All 
the  next  day,  Comfort  kept  going  over 
it  in  her  mind,  and  wondering  whether 
heaven  would  really  be  as  beautiful  as 
that  vision.  When  she  was  going  to  bed 
she  came  to  her  mother  and  said,  "I  don't 
think,  mama,  that  my  visit  did  me  any 
harm,  for  I  have  hardly  thought  of  it  to 
day,  only  to  be  thankful  that  everybody 
was  so  kind,  and  that  I  saw  so  many 
pretty  things.  Don't  you  think  that  God 
heard  my  prayer,  mama,  and  made  my 
heart  more  pure  ?" 

"  I  hope  so,  dearest,  and  if  you  try  to 
keep  it  clean,  He  will  always  help  you." 


118  OUR  LITTLE  COMFOBT. 

"And  did  He  send  me  that  lovely 
dream,  mama,  to  make  me  remember 
that  nothing  in  this  world  can  ever  be 
half  as  pretty  as  what  we  shall  see  in 
heaven?" 

"Perhaps  so,  my  darling.  He  will 
always  find  some  way  of  teaching  His 
children,  and  if  your  thoughts  during 
the  day  are  full  of  holy  things,  your 
dreams  will  be  like  them.  Good  night, 
darling.  Go  to  sleep  now,  and  perhaps 
you  may  again  dream  of  the  beautiful 
city." 

A  few  weeks  after  this  conversation, 
Mrs.  Foster's  health  began  to  improve, 
and  Comfort,  to  her  great  delight,  saw 
her  mother  sitting  for  half  an  hour  every 
day,  in  the  large  easy-chair  which  was 
her  father's  favorite  seat.  A  sorrowful 
heart  had  made  Mrs.  Foster  more  ill 
than  she  would  otherwise  have  been,  but 
the  pleasure  of  again  talking  to  her  hus- 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  119 

band,  and  the  happiness  that  she  found 
in  the  society  of  her  dear  little  girl, 
soon  worked  wonders.  Comfort  was 
quite  sure  that  the  improvement  in  her 
mother's  health  was  an  answer  to  the 
prayer  which  her  father  made  every 
morning,  and  so  it  was,  by  whatever 
•means  it  might  have  been  brought  about. 
Mrs.  Davis  had  called,  once  or  twice, 
to  see  the  invalid,  and  when  she  found 
that  she  was  sitting  up,  insisted  that 
whenever  she  was  able  to  go  out,  she 
should  send  for  her  carriage  and  take 
a  short  drive.  This  was  a  delightful 
idea  to  Comfort,  who  was  the  happiest 
little  creature  alive  at  the  very  thought 
of  her  mother's  recovery,  but  Mrs.  Fos 
ter  was  not  yet  strong  enough  to  walk 
across  the  room,  so  she  told  her  little 
girl  that  she  must  be  very  patient  and 
not  expect  her  to  be  well  too  soon. 
The  first  time  that  Mrs.  Davis  came 


120  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

to  see  them  after  Eveline's  birth-day, 
she  brought  a  number  of  books  that 
Comfort  had  particularly  liked,  and  told 
her  that  Eveline  had  sent  them  to  her 
as  a  present.  Mrs.  Foster  told  her  little 
•girl  that  she  might  accept  them,  and  for 
many  days  Comfort  spent  all  her  morn 
ings  in  reading  these  treasures  aloud  to 
her  mother,  and  when  she  came  to  the 
last  one  she  looked  very  sorrowful  and 
said,  "  What  shall  I  do  now,  mama,  I 
have  nothing  more  to  read." 

"Nothing?"  repeated  her  mother,  in 
an  inquiring  tone,  and  laid  her  hand  on 
the  books  which  always  stood  on  her 
little  table. 

"Oh,  mama,  I  meant  no  story-book. 
I  know  what  you  mean;  you  think  I 
have  not  liked  to  read  the  Bible  so  much 
since  I  have  had  the  books  that  Eveline 
gent  me.  I  don't  think  it  has  seemed 
so  interesting,  and  yet  all  the  stories 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  121 

we  have  been  reading  are  about  being 
good." 

"  I  know  it,  my  dear,  but  they  have  so 
much  in  them  that  is  amusing,  that  some 
times  one  almost  forgets  what  they  were 
meant  to  teach.  You  have  been  more 
anxious  to  know  what  happened  to  poor 
little  Willy  Newton,  than  whether  he  was 
ever  cured  of  his  faults." 

"  So  I  have,  mama,"  said  Comfort, 
with  her  usual  candor.  "I  had  not  even 
thought  what  I  was  to  learn  from  the 
book.  I  am  glad,  now,  that  I  have  not 
a  library  full  like  Eveline,  or  I  should 
be  always  reading  for  the  story." 

"I  will  tell  you  what  we  can  do 
to  occupy  ourselves,"  said  Mrs.  Foster. 
"Little  girls  have  to  learn  a  great  deal 
while  they  are  young,  and  generally  go 
to  school,  but  I  shall  try  and  teach  you 
myself,  now  that  I  am  so  much  better. 

One  of  the  first  studies  that  children  have 
11 


122  DUE  LITTLE   COMFORT. 

to  go  through  is  that  which  is  called  geo 
graphy." 

"And  what  is  that,  mama?"  asked 
Comfort,  for  her  knowledge  about  very 
common  things  was  much  less  than  what 
she  possessed  with  regard  to  the  Bible. 

"Geography,"  replied  her  mother,  "is 
a  description  of  the  world  in  which  we 
live.  You  know  you  asked  why  Mrs. 
Davis  smiled  when  you  wanted  to  know 
if  she  had  been  to  Jerusalem,  and  thought 
that  she  could  ride  there,  and  you  were 
astonished  to  learn  how  many  thousand 
miles  you  would  have  to  travel  before 
you  could  reach  the  Holy  Land.  If  you 
had  studied  geography  you  would  have 
known  better." 

"  Oh,  mama  !  how  I  shall  like  to  learn 
it  I"  exclaimed  Comfort,  her  eyes  spar 
kling  with  pleasure.  "  Can't  we  begin 
this  morning?" 

"  We  have  no  books,  dearest,  that  are 


OUR   LITTLE  COMFORT.  123 

simple  enough,  for  you  to  understand ; 
but  stop !  I  have  thought  of  a  plan ;  what 
country  would  you  like  to  learn  about 
first?" 

"  Oh,  the  one  where  our  Saviour  lived," 
answered  Comfort,  eagerly. 

"Well,  then,  darling,  draw  that  little 
table  nearer  to  my  chair,  and  open  the 
Bible  on  it,  to  the  map  in  the  beginning 
- — I  mean  what  you  used  to  call  the  empty 
picture." 

Comfort  fixed  the  table  and  the  book 
as  her  mother  told  her,  and  then  Mrs. 
Foster  said, — 

"  We  will  take  the  mountains  in  Pales 
tine  first.  A  mountain,  you  know,  is 
a  very  high  piece  of  land,  like  that  which 
you  see  behind  this  house  in  the  distance. 
Now,  tell  me  in  what  mountain  the  Ark 
rested  after  the  flood?" 

"  I  don't  know,  mama,  only  the  name 
begins  with  an  A,  and  is  a  hard  one." 


124  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

"  Well,  find  it,  darling,  and  then  I  will 
show  it  to  you  on  the  map." 

Comfort  soon  found  the  place,  for  she 
knew  that  it  was  in  the  beginning  of 
Genesis,  and  then  her  mother  showed 
her  where  mount  Ararat  was  situated, 
and  that  it  was  not  in  Judea,  but  in  a 
country  to  the  south  of  it,  that  we  now 
call  Arabia. 

The  little  girl  listened  very  attentively 
to  what  Mrs.  Foster  said,"  and  when  she 
had  done,  asked  very  eagerly,  if  Arabia 
was  €iot  a  part  of  America.  Her  mother 
smiled  at  this  question,  and  said,  kindly, 

"  I  forgot,  nrf  darling,  that  you  did  not 
know  anything  about  the  great  divisions 
of  the  world.  We  must  begin  a  little 
farther  back  in  our  study."  Then  she 
rang  the  bell  for  Fanny,  and  told  her  to 
see  if  she  could  find  a  globe  anywhere, 
which  they  had  brought  with  them  from 
Canada.  When  the  nurse  understood 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  125 

what  was  wanted,  she  went  up  in  the 
garret  and  unpacked  a  large  box  which 
had  not  been  opened  for  many  years,  and 
there  she  found  two  globes,  one  for  teach 
ing  geography,  and  the  other  astronomy. 
As  she  did  aot  know  what  Mrs.  Foster 
wished,  she  brought  both  down. 

"  Oh,  mama,  here  are  two  worlds,"  ex 
claimed  Comfort,  as  she  knelt  down  on 
the  floor  by  them,  and  tried  to  turn  them 
round  with  her  little  hands.  v 

"This  is  the  one  we  live  in,  because 
I  see  the  name  America.  Is  the  other 
the  sun,  or  the  moon?" 

"  Neither,  my  darling,"  replied  Mrs. 
Foster.  "  Don't  you  see  it  is  covered 
with  little  spots?  These  are  -the  stars, 
and  by  and  by  you  shall  learn  all  about 
them." 

"Oh,  oh,  how  delightful!"  shouted 
Comfort,  in  a  perfect  ecstasy,  as  she  ran 
from  one  globe  to  the  other,  without 


126  OUK  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

being  able  to  tell  which  interested  her 
most. 

Lfrs.  Foster  then  asked  Fanny  to  put 
the  terrestrial  globe,  that  is,  the  one  which 
represented  the  earth,  upon  a  chair  by 
her  side,  and  Comfort  stood  by  it  while 
her  mother  explained  the  first  chapter  of 
Genesis.  The  little  girl  could  not  at  first 
.realize  that  she  was  standing  on  the  out 
side  of  a  great  round  world,  that  was 
moving  over  and  over,  every  day,  but 
she  had  been  accustomed  to  believe  a 
great  many  things  that  she  did  not  un 
derstand,  so  that  she  had  no  doubt  that 
what  her  mother  told  her  was  true. 
When  she .  heard  that  this  world  had 
once  been  all  a  dark  mass,  without  any 
shape,  and  entirely  empty,  she  realized 
how  much  power  was  necessary  to  change 
it  into  the  beautiful  home  in  which  she 
now  lived. 

Mrs.  Foster  described  the  light  as  it 


OUE  LITTLE  COMFOKT.  127 

shone  out  when  God  said  "  Let  there  be 
light,"  and  then  how  the  clouds  formed 
in  the  sky,  and  left  the  water  covering 
all  the  outside  of  the  earth. 

"  Now,"  she  said,  "  we  shall  have  use 
for  our  globe;  we  will  try  and  imagine 
it  all  covered  with  water  as  it  was  at  the 
beginning,  of  the  third  day,  when  God 
said,  '  Let  the  dry  land  appear,  and  God 
called  the  dry  land  earth,  and  the  gather 
ing  together  of  the  water  called  He  seas.' 
All  those  dark  spots  with  three  or  four 
black  lines  around  the  edge,  represent 
water.  There  are  five  of  these  great 
bodies  of  water  named  oceans,  and  they 
are  all  connected  together.  These  at  the 
top  and  bottom  of  the  globe  are  called 
the  Northern  and  Southern  Oceans;  the 
broad  one  in  the  middle  is  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  and  in  some  places  it  is  seven 
thousand  miles  wide;  the  narrow  one  is 
the  Atlantic,  and  there  is  another  flowing 


128  OUR  LITTLE   COMFOET. 

between  the  Pacific  and  Atlantic,  and 
that  is  called  the  Indian  Ocean." 

While  Mrs.  Foster  was  speaking,  Com 
fort  hardly  turned  her  eyes  from  the 
globe,  and  spelt  the  names  of  all  the 
oceans  that  she  had  pointed  out,  but  now 
she  asked  her  mother  if  she  would  an 
swer  a  question  that  had  just  come  into 
her  head. 

"I  have  been  thinking,"  she  said, 
"that  when  the  flood  came,  it  must  have 
covered  all  the  dry  land  up,  for  you 
know  you  told  me  that  the  water  was 
a  great  many  feet  deep  all  over  the  earth. 
Now,  mama,  when  the  flood  went  down, 
did  the  water  run  back  into  all  the  same 
places  which  had  been  seas  in  the  be 
ginning  ?" 

"You  have  asked  me  rather  a  hard 
question,"  replied  Mrs.  Foster,  with  a 
smile,  "  and  one  that  I  cannot  answer ; 
so  I  think,  instead  of  imagining  the  world 


OUR   LITTLE   COMFORT.  129 

after  the  creation,  we  shall  have  to  take 
it  as  it  has  been  since  the  flood  went 
down.  On  the  other  side  of  the  globe, 
there  is  a  long  piece  of  land  almost 
separated  in  the  middle,  which  is  called 
North  and  South  America.  We  will 
not  turn  it  up,  for  in  old  times  no  one 
knew  that  there  was  such  a  country. 
Now,  see,  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa.  If 
you  wanted  to  choose  a  place  which  could 
be  reached  most  easily  by  the  inhabitants 
of  all  these  countries,  which  would  you 
take  ?" 

Comfort  looked  very  carefully  at  these 
three  great  divisions  of  the  earth,  and 
saw  that  the  Ked  Sea  separated  Asia  from 
Africa,  and  that  the  Black  Sea  was  be 
tween  Europe  and  Asia,  and  the  Medi 
terranean  Sea  between  Europe  and  Africa. 

"  Mama,"  she  said,  at  length,  putting 
her  hand  on  the  country  that  we  now 
call  Turkey  in  Asia,  "would  it  not  be 


130  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

easy  for  the  people  in  Europe,  and  those 
of  Asia  and  Africa,  to  meet  here?  It 
seems  to  me  as  if  this  spot  was  the  near 
est  to  all  three  countries." 

Mrs.  Foster  was  delighted  with  the 
quickness  of  her  little  scholar,  and  put 
her  hand  fondly  on  her  head,  saying, 
"You  are  right,  my  darling;  Judea  was 
in  that  very  place,  because  God  wanted 
to  have  the  nation  who  served  Him,  and 
the  birth-place  of  His  .Son,  where  all  the 
world,  that  was  then  known,  could  hear 
of  them.  Travellers  from  all  countries 
came  to  this  spot  in  the  time  of  the 
Apostles.  Don't  you  remember  all  those 
nations,  with  hard  names,  who  were 
gathered  together  at  Jerusalem,,  when 
the  Apostles  received  the  Holy  Ghost?" 

"  Oh  yes,  mama,  and  how  Peter  could 
speak  all  their  languages,  and  how  they 
went  home  telling  what  they  had  seen. 
i  shall  not  forget  where  Judea  was." 


OUK  LITTLE   COMFORT.  131 

"  Well,  then,  now  we  will  go  on  with 
the  mountains  mentioned  in  the  Bible, 
most  of  which  are  in  the  country  that 
I  have  just  told  you  is  now  called  Turkey 
in  Asia.  But  you  have  been  listening 
so  attentively  that  I  am  afraid  you  are 
tired  now,  so  perhaps  we  had  better  wait 
till  to-morrow." 

Comfort  was  almost  sure  that  she  was 
not  wearied,  but  her  mother  remembered 
that  it  had  been  thought  that  little  Kate's 
health  was  injured  by  the  activity  of  her 
mind,  so  she  told  Fanny  to  put  the  globe 
up  on  the  bureau,  and  then  take  Comfort 
out  to  walk. 

We  have  forgotten  to  mention  that  Mr. 
Foster  had  been  obliged,  by  business,  to 
leave  home  for  several  weeks,  and  his 
little  daughter  had  never  been  to  church 
again  on  that  account.  Mrs.  Foster  was 
able  only  to  write  a  few  lines,  at  the 
time,  to  her  husband,  so  he  knew  very 


132  OUR  LITTLE   COMFOET. 

little  of  what  was  going  on  at  home. 
Comfort  was  exceedingly  desirous  to 
write  a  letter  herself,  but  she  had  only 
just  begun  making  letters  on  the  slate, 
and  it  was  hard  to  tell  what  they  were 
intended  for,  but  now  she  had  a  motive 
to  learn,  and  improved  very  fast.  One 
day,  she  came  to  her  mother,  who  was 
sitting  up  and  writing  a  short  letter,  and 
said,  "Mama,  just  see  if  you  can  read 
the  word  on  my  slate." 

"< Comfort  Foster;'  is  not  that  it?" 
asked  her  mother,  encouragingly . 

"Oh,  you  read  it,  didn't  you,  mama? 
Now  let  me  see  if  I  cannot  write  another 
word." 

Comfort  sat  down*  on  the  floor  again, 
with  her  slate  in  her  lap,  and  an  old 
sampler  from  which  she  had  been  copy 
ing  the  writing  letters  before  her,  because 
she  did  not  wish  to  trouble  her  mother 
to  make  a  copy  while  she  was  busy. 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  133 

"  There  1  there  !"  she  exclaimed,  almost 
dancing  with  joy  at  her  own  success,  as 
she  again  handed  the  slate  to  her  mother. 

"'Come  home,  dear  papa.'  Why,  at 
this  rate,  you  will  soon  learn  to  write  a 
letter.  Write  as  much  as  you  can  on 
your  slate,  and  when  I  have  done  I  will 
give  -you  a  lead  pencil  and  you  shall 
put  it  down  at  the  bottom  of  my  let 
ter." 

This  was  charming.  Comfort  washed 
her  slate  all  clean,  and  then  she  ruled 
it  as  nicely  as  she  could,  with  a  book, 
and  began  what  she  called  a  letter, 
though  she  had  never  read  one,  only  in 
books,  in  her  life,  for  Mr.  Foster's  epistles 
had  been  on  business,  though  they  always 
contained  some  message  for  his  dear  little 
girl.  By  the  aid  of  the  sampler,  and  the 
letters  that  she  had  already  learned,  Com 
fort  made  out  to  write  the  following  note 
to  her  papa: — 

12 


134:  OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT. 

"  Come  home,  dear  papa,  God  is  making 
mama  well,  because  three  prayed  for  her, 
you,  and  Fanny,  and  I.  I  learn  all  about 
the  earth ;  won't  you  bring  me  a  book 
to  study  more  about  it?  Mrs.  Waddle 
has  got  the  pip.  I  want  to  go  to  church 
again.  Mama  is  going  to  ride  in  a  car 
riage,  when  she  gets  better.  I  wish  your 
ear-trumpet  was  long  enough  for  one  end 
to  reach  here.  I  ask  God  to  take  care  of 
you,  every  night,  and  bring  you  home 
safe."  Your  little  daughter, 

COMFORT  FOSTER. 

When  Comfort  had  done  writing  this 
letter,  she  found,  to  her  surprise,  that  her 
mother  had  gone  back  to  bed,  for  she 
had  been  so  much  engaged  that  she  did 
not  hear  her  move  at  all.  Many  little 
girls  would  have  fretted  at  being  obliged 
to  wait  a  whole  day  before  they  could 
finish  their  letter,  but  Comfort  never 


OUR   LITTLE   COMFORT.  135 

dreamed  of  doing  such  a  thing.  She 
set  up  her  slate  carefully,  where  what  she 
had  written  would  not  get  rubbed  out, 
and  then  she  sat  down  by  her  mother's 
bed,  and  read  to  her  in  a  low,  gentle 
voice,  till  Mrs.  Foster  fell  fast  asleep. 

The  next  day,  Comfort  was  allowed 
to  copy  her  letter,  and  though  the  capital 
letters  were  not  in  the  right  place,  all 
the  words  were  properly  spelt,  and  Mr. 
Foster  thought,  when  he  received  it,  that 
it  was  very  nicely  written  for  a  little  girl 
of  Comfort's  age.  About  a  week  after, 
he  came  home,  and  the  moment  that 
Comfort  heard  his  step  in  the  yard,  she 
knew  it  and  ran  to  meet  him.  He  took 
her  up  in  his  arms  and  kissed  her  fondly, 
and  then  carried  her  up  into  her  mother's 
room.  His  surprise -was  great  when  he 
saw  his  dear  wife  sitting  up,  and  -looking 
better  than  she  had  done  for  many  years. 
Comfort  was  contented  to  remain  silent 


136  OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT. 

upon  his  knee,  while  he  told  her  mother 
all  about  his  journey,  and  heard  the 
history  of  what  had  happened  during  his 
absence.  Before  he  had  learned  half 
that  he  wished,  Fanny  came  to  say  that 
tea  was  ready,  and  the  little  girl  was 
very  happy  to  be  seated  once  more  at 
the  table  with  her  father,  for  during  his 
absence  she  had  been  obliged  to  have 
her  breakfast  all  alone,  and  her  tea  too, 
when  her  mother  was  tired,  or  asleep, 
as  she  often  was  at  that  hour. 

After  tea,  Mr.  Foster  told  Fanny  to 
bring  his  portmanteau  into  the  dining- 
room,  and  there  he  unpacked  it  and  took 
out  an  air-pillow  which  he  had  brought 
for  his  wife,  who  complained  most  of 
the  heat  in  her  head,  and  also  a  nice 
dressing-gown,  the  pattern  of  which  Com 
fort  particularly  admired.  She  did  not 
say,  "  What  have  you  got  for  me,  papa?" 
or  even  think  of  herself,  so  much  oc- 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  137 

cupied  was  she  with  the  idea  of  her 
mother  being  made  more  comfortable; 
but  Mr.  Foster  had  by  no  means  forgot 
ten  his  little  daughter.  He  drew  from 
his  portmanteau  a  large  paper  parcel, 
and  then  telling  Fanny  to  bring  the 
things  he  had  taken  out  into  Mrs.  Foster's 
room,  he  went  up  there  himself,  followed 
by  Comfort,  who  was  trying  to  make 
herself  useful  by  carrying  a  light  pack 
age  which  Fanny  had  dropped.  Mrs. 
Foster  was  much  pleased  with  her  hus 
band's  thoughtfulness  in  bringing  her 
such  a  nice  cool  pillow,  and  she  let  Com 
fort  try  and  blow  it  up,  but  the  little 
girl  got  quite  out  of  breath  before  it  was 
half  full  of  air.  Mrs,  Foster  thought,  too, 
that  her  new  dressing-gown  was  particu 
larly  pretty,  and  did  not  say  anything 
because  it  was  not  black,  for  she  saw 
that  Mr.  Foster  wished  that  she  should 

wear  mourning  no  longer. 
12* 


138  OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT. 

"And  here,  my  little  Comfort,"  said 
Mr.  Foster,  as  he  undid  the  package  that 
he  had  brought  up  stairs,  "is  a  geo 
graphy  and  writing-book  for  you,  and  a 
volume  of  poetry,  with  a  hymn  in  it  for 
every  day  in  the  year." 

"  Oh,  papa,  how  kind !  what  can  I 
give  you;  I  have  nothing  but  kisses, 
but  you  shall  have  plenty  of  them," 
cried  the  little  girl,  kissing  him  again 
and  again. 

"There,  that'll  do,"  said  Mr.  Foster, 
laughing,  "you  must  stop,  or  I  can't 
show  you  what  else  I  have  brought. 
Here  is  a  dissected  map  of  America,  and 
when  you  have  learned  the  geography 
you  can  put  it  together." 

Comfort  had  never  heard  of  such  a 
thing  before,  but  she  did  not  doubt  that 
it  would  be  a  delightful  occupation  to 
try  and  make  the  map,  but  the  last  pres 
ent  which  her  father  had  brought  put 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  139 

all  the  rest  out  of  her  mind.  This  was 
a  very  neat 'Prayer  Book  for  her  to  carry 
to  church,  and  a  Testament,  so  small 
that  she  could  have  it  always  in  her 
pocket,  and  for  that  purpose  it  was 
slipped  into  a  little  case.  Comfort  had 
so  often  wished  that  her  mother's  Bible 
was  not  so  big,  and  the  one  out  of  which* 
her  father  read  was  almost  as  heavy. 
Since  summer  had  come,  she  was  very 
fond  of  sitting  out  under  the  trees,  or  in 
the  wood  behind  the  house,  and  many 
times  she  had  thought  how  she  should 
like  to  read  some  of  her  favorite  pas 
sages  of  Scripture,  with  the  birds  singing 
around  her,  and  the  sweet  air  fanning 
her  face. 

She  had  hardly  begun  to  express  her 
delight  at  all  these  new  treasures,  when 
Mrs.  Foster  reminded  her  that  it  was 
time  for  her  to  be  undressed;  but  she 
laid  them  quietly  by,  only  asking  a  few 


140  OUR  LITTLE  COMFOKT. 

moments  to  get  her  mind  quiet  before 
she  said  her  prayers,  so  that  she  might 
remember  all  the  things  for  which  she 
ought  to  thank  her  heavenly  Father.  Her 
father's  return ;  the  book  out  of  which 
she  could  learn  more  of  the  beautiful 
world  that  God  had  made ;  the  little 
Testament  that  she  could  have  always 
with  her  to  remind  her  of  His  presence 
and  the  love  which,  from  her  birth,  had 
been  so  mindful  of  all  her  wants,  were 
each  mentioned  in  her  simple  address  to 
that  beloved  Friend,  who  became  dearer 
at  every  step  in  life. 

With  one  more  kiss  from  her  iather 
and  mother,  Comfort  went  to  rest,  and 
though  there  was  talking  in  the  room, 
she  was  not  kept  awake,  for  she  fixed 
her  mind  on  the  subject  which  was 
always  the  last  in  her  thoughts  at  night, 
and  so  she  fell  asleep. 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  141 


CHAPTER  'VII. 

i 

THE  Sunday  after  Mr.  Foster's  return, 
he  told  Comfort  that  she  might  again 
go  with  him  to  church.  The  little  girl 
was  even  more  delighted  at  this  permis 
sion  than  she  had  been  before,  for  she 
knew  now  exactly  what  a  church  was, 
and  that  it  was  a  blessed  privilege  to 
worship  God  in  an  assembly  of  Chris 
tians. 

As  it  was  a  very  warm  day,  her  mother 
told  Fanny  to  take  out  a  thin,  white  mus 
lin  dress  which  Kate  used  to  wear,  and 
see  if  Comfort  had  not  out-grown  it. 
She  was  pleased  to  find  that  it  was  just 
the  right  length,  and  as  it  was  made 
like  an  infant's  dress,  with  ribbons  run 
in  around  the  wsrist  and  neck,  it  could  be 


142  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

drawn  up  to  fit  the  little  girl  very  nicely. 
The  material  of  the  dress  was  a  fine 
dotted  muslin,  which  Mrs.  Foster  had-  cut 
up  for  clothes  for  her  children,  as  after 
she  lost  the  first  little  boy,  she  had  always 
worn  mourning,  and  never  thought  that 
she  should  leave  it  off  again.  Comfort, 
however,  did  not  seem  to  perceive  that 
the  dress  was  any  nicer  than  the  cambric 
ones  which  she  wore  every  day,  only 
she  said, — 

"  Oh,  how  cool  this  will  be,  and  I  am 
so  glad  that  I  am  to  wear  white  to  church, 
for  you  know,  mama,  you  told  me  that 
the  minister  wore  his  surplice  as  a  sign 
of  purity,  and  I  think  it  wojild  be  very- 
nice  if  all  the  people  had  on  white  too." 

"  But  you  must  remember,  my  darling, 
that  it  is  a  pure  heart  which  God  likes 
best,  and  what  our  Saviour'  said  to  the 
Pharisees  who  were  so  particular  about 
washing." 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFOET.  143 

"I  will  try  and  not  forget  it,"  said 
Comfort,  very  meekly,  and  then  there 
was  .not  time  for  any  more  conversation. 
Fanny  brought  out  a  round  straw  hat, 
which  she  tied  under  the  little  girl's  chin 
with  blue  strings,  and  her  mama  put  a 
handkerchief  around  her  neck,  so  that 
the  sun  might  not  burn  it  where  the  curls 
did  not  cover  it,  and  then  she  was  all 
ready  for  church. 

"  You  will  not  need  my  Prayer  Book," 
said  her  mother,  "  but  you  had  better  put 
yours  in  your  pocket,  and  your  little 
Testament  too,  if  you  wish  to  find  the 
lessons,  for  I  am  afraid  that  your  warm 
little  hands  will  soil  them,  and  I  am  not 
sure  that  the  color  may  not  come  out  of 
your  mits,  so  you  had  better  take  them 
off  in  church.  If  you  are  uncomfortable, 
you  can  lay  aside  your  hat  and  this  hand 
kerchief,  but  do  it  quietly,  my  dear,  be 
fore  the  service  commences.  Your  father 


144:  OUK  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

has  gone-down  stairs,  so  give  me  a  kiss 
and  run  after  him." 

"  Oh,  mama,"  said  Comfort,  as  she  bid 
her  good  morning,  "how  nice  it  is  to 
leave  you  sitting  up  here  instead  of  in 
bed,  as  you  were  when  we  went  to  church 
before.  If  we  keep  on  praying  for  you, 
I  arn  sure  that  God  will  make  you  quite 
well." 

The  walk  to  Granville,  that  morning, 
seemed  quite  long,  and  Comfort  was  very 
tired,  but  she  did  not  mind  that,  because 
she  thought  about  the  place  to  which 
she  was  going.  Neither  did  she  tell  her 
father  that  she  was  weary,  for  she  was 
sure  that  he  would  then  insist  on  carry 
ing  her  part  of  the  way,  and  she  knew 
that  she  was  now  very  heavy.  To  make 
the  time  seem  shorter,  she  repeated  over 
a  number  of  hymns,  and  her  catechism, 
for  Mr.  Foster  did  not  seem  inclined  to 
talk,  for  his  mind  was  full  of  very  serious 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFOKT.  145 

reflections.  "This  walk,"  thought  Com 
fort  to  herself,  "  makes  me  think  of  what 
mama  said  about  its  being  no  matter 
what  sort  of  a  life  we  had,  if  we  only 
reached  heaven  at  last."  At  this  moment 
they  came  to  the  top  of  a  hill  from  which 
they  could  see  the  church,  and  Comfort 
immediately  remembered  the  hymn, 

"  As  when  the  weary  traveller  gains 

The  height  of  some  commanding  hill, 
His  heart  revives,  if  o'er  the  plains 
He  sees  his  home,  though  distant  still," 

and  she  could  understand  why  life  was 
so  much  pleasanter  after  the  dream  in 
which  she  saw  the  beautiful  city  so 
plainly. 

The  church  bell  was  ringing  when 
Mr.  Foster  and  his  little  girl  entered 
the  door,  and  as  Mrs.  Davis  had  invited 
them  always  to  sit  with  her,  they  again 
went  into  her  seat,  and,  soon  after,  she 

entered  with  her  two  little  girls.     Corn- 
is 


146  OUK  LITTLE  COMFOKT. 

fort  returned  the  greeting  of  her  com 
panions  only  by  a  pleasant  smile,  and, 
as  she  was  very  warm,  took  off  her  hat 
and  handkerchief,  and  laid  her  mite  with 
them  under  the  seat,  where  they  would 
not  be  in  the  way  of  any  one.  Then, 
she  drew  out  her  Prayer  Book,  and 
was  busy  in  finding  the  place  till  the* 
organ  began  to  play.  Though  Mrs.  Fos 
ter  had  explained  to  the  little  girl  that 
the  music  was  made  by  an  instrument 
and  not  by  the  angels,  it  still  sounded 
very -sweet,  and  prepared  her  mind  for 
the  services. 

After  the  sermon  was  finished,  the 
clergyman  came  down  from  the  pulpit, 
and,  standing  in  the  chancel,  invited  all 
the  children  who  were  present,  .to  come 
forward  and  be. catechised.  Comfort  had 
never  heard -of  such  a  thing  before,  and 
did  not  know  what  she  was  to  do,  for 
her  father  was  so  deaf  that,  of  course, 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  147 

he  did  not  hear  the  i  announcement,  and 
ghe  could  not  think  of  any  way  of  making 
him  understand  what  she  wished.  But 
Mary  and  Eveline  Davis  rose  from  their 
seats  and  passed  out  of  the  pew,  and 
then  Mr.  Foster  thought  what  must  be 
going  on,  and  whispered  to  Comfort  that 
she  might  go  and  be  catechised  too. 

"When  the  little  girl  reached  the  chan 
cel,  the  clergyman  looked  at  her  with 
much  interest,  for  she  had  not  remem 
bered  to  put  her  hat  on,  and  he  thought 
her  one  of  the  loveliest  looking  children 
that  he  had  ever  seen,  with  her  sweet, 
earnest  face  shaded  by  those  long  golden 
curls,  and  her  little  delicate  figure  dressed 
in  such  a  pure,  childlike  garment.  She 
had  taken  her  place  at  the  corner  of 
the  chancel,  and  when  he  -asked  what 
was  her  name,  and  she  answered,  "  Cpm- 
fort,"  he  thought  that  must  be  some  pet 
name,  and  said,  kindly,  "I  mean  the 


148  OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT. 

name  by  which,  you  were  baptized,  my 
child." 

"  Comfort,  sir,"  the  little  girl  repeated, 
with  the  same  sweet  unembarrassed  voice, 
while  her  mild  blue  eyes  were  fixed  upon 
his  face  with  the  most  reverential  expres 
sion. 

The  clergyman  passed  on  to  the  next 
child  with  the  question,  "  Who  gave  you 
this  name?"  and  when  he  caine  round 
again  to  Comfort,  asked,  "  What  is  your 
duty  to  God?"  adding,  "However*  that 
is  a  long  answer  for  such  a  little  girl, 
and  perhaps  you  cannot  say  it  all." 

Comfort  felt  as  if  she  were  reciting 
her  catechism  in  the  immediate  presence 
of  God,  her  heavenly  Father,  and  her 
manner  therefore  was  very  solemn  when 
she  answered  this  question,  and  the  words 
"with  all  my  heart,  and  all  my  mind, 
and  all  my  strength,"  were  spoken  so 
earnestly  that  the  clergyman  wondered 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  149 

who  had  taught  the  child  the  meaning 
of  the  words  that  she  spoke. 

"And  why  is  this  your  duty  to  God, 
my  dear  ?  I  mean,  why  should  you  love 
Him-  so  much  ?"  fye  asked. 

"  Because  He  is  our  best  Friend,  and 
loves  us,  and  made  us,  and  died  for  us," 
said  Comfort,  with  much  animation. 

"How  do  you  know  that  He  loves 
us?"  asKed  the  clergyman,  who  was 
much  interested  in  the  manner  in  which 
his  last  question  had  been  answered. 

"Because  mama  says  so,  and  I  read 
it  in  my  little  Testament.  I  will  show 
you  the  place,  sir." 

So  saying,  Comfort  drew  her  Testa 
ment  from  her  pocket,  and,  turning  to 
the  text,  "  We  love  Him  because  He  first 
loved  us,"  read  it  aloud  in  a  low,  but 
very  distinct  voice. 

Poor  Mr.  Foster  could  not  hear  a  word 
that  his  child  said,  but  he  saw  that  the 

13* 


150  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

minister  looked  pleased  whenever  he 
came  to  her,  and  was  not  afraid  of  her 
saying  anything  wrong.  "Out  of  the 
abundance  of  the  heart  the  mouth  speak- 
eth,"  and  he  knew  that  his  little  daugh 
ter's  heart  was  full  of  good  desires  and 
holy  thoughts. 

After  the  catechism  was  all  repeated, 
the  clergyman  made  a  few  remarks,  and 
then  he  told  the  children  to  kneel  around 
the  chancel  while  he  offered  the  conclu 
ding  prayer  and  benediction. 

Comfort  felt  as  if  she  were  a  step 
nearer  to  God,  as  she  knelt  where  she 
had  read  in  the  Prayer  Book  that  persons 
were  confirmed  and  partook  of  the  Lord's 
Supper.  After  the  benediction  was  pro 
nounced,  '  she  thanked  God  for  letting 
His  minister  hear  her  say  her  catechism, 
and  asked  for  strength  to  remember  and 
practice  what  he  had  said,  and  then  she 
prayed  that,  when  she  was  old  enough, 


OUK  LITTLE  COMFORT.  151 

she  might  come  to  that  place  to  repeat 
the  vows  that  had  been  made  at  her  bap 
tism,  and  to  receive  the  precious  sacra 
ment. 

The  little  girl  was  so  absorbed  in  her 
devotions,  'that  she  did  not  hear  the 
children  all  going  to  their  seats,  and  was 
surprised,  when  she  rose,  to  find  .that 
they  were  gone,  and  the  people  were 
leaving  church.  The  minister  still  stood 
in  the  chancel,  and,  coming  towards  her, 
said  kindly,  as  he  saw  her  bewildered 
expression,  "Whose  Comfort  are  you, 
my  little  darling?" 

"  My  father's  and  mother's,"  she  replied 
with  great  simplicity. 

"I  am  sure  of  that,  but  what  is  their 
name,  and  who  brought  you  here  ?" 

"  My  father,  and  he  is  called  Mr.  Fos 
ter.  How  can  I  get  to  him,  sir  ?" 

"  Wait  for  me*  a  moment,  and  I  will 
help  you  find  him,"  said  the  clergyman ; 


152  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

and  then  he  went  into  the  vestry  room, 
leaving  Comfort  standing  alone  by  the 
chancel.  She  was  not  at  all  afraid,  how 
ever,  and  as  soon  as  the  people  left  the 
church  she  saw  her  father  coming  up 
the  aisle,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  min 
ister  came  out  of  the  vestry  room. 

"-This  is  my  father,  sir,"  she  said,  as 
she  took  hold  of  Mr.  Foster's  hand.  "  He 
is  deaf,  and  cannot  hear  what  you  say, 
but  if  you  will  come  to  see  us  you  can 
talk  to  him  through  his  ear-trumpet,  and 
I  know  my  sick  mama  will  like  to  have 
you  come." 

Mr.  Harrington — for  that  was  the  min 
ister's  name — said  he  would  be  very 
happy  to  pay  Mr.  Foster  a  visit,  and 
then  Comfort  made  signs  to  explain  to 
her*  father  that  she  had  been  asking  the 
clergyman  to  come  and  talk  to  him 
through  his  ear-trumpet. 

Mr.   Foster  repeated    the    little    girl's 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  153 

invitation,  and  said  that  his  deafness 
had  kept  him  at  home  for  a  long  time, 
but  that  now  he  hoped  to  attend  church 
regularly,  and  to  be  considered  a  mem 
ber  of  the  parish. 

The  clergyman  and  her  father  con 
tinued  talking,  as  they  walked  down 
the  aisle,  though  in  a  low  tone  and 
serious  manner,  and  when  they  parted, 
Comfort  heard  Mr.  Harrington  say,  "I 
will  try  and  ride  out  some  morning  to 
breakfast  with  you,"  and  she  felt  so 
thankful  that  their  house  was  to  be 
honored  by  a  visit  from  a  minister  of 
God. 


154  OUK  LITTLE  COMFOKT. 


CHAPTER  Till. 

A  FEW  days  after  the  catechising  in 
church,  Mrs.  Davis  called  to  see  if  Mrs. 
Foster  was  not  well  enough  to  take  a 
short  drive,  and  brought  her  two  chil 
dren,  at  the  same  time,  to  pay  a  visit 
to  Comfort.  The  parlor  had  been  aired 
and  dusted  since  the  first  time  that  Mrs. 
Davis  came,  but  it  was  still  kept  dark. 
Fanny,  however,  unbolted  the  shutters, 
after  asking  the  guests  to  seat  themselves, 
which  they  did  by  the  sense  of  feeling, 
and  then  she  went  to  see  if  her  mistress 
was  able  to  receive  them  in  her  chamber. 

As  soon  as  the  nurse  was  out  of  hear 
ing,  Mary  got  up  and  walked  arounc 
the  room,  staring  -at  the  faded,  old 
fashioned  furniture,  and  examining  con 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFOKT.  155 

temptuously  a  picture  worked  in  satin 
which  was  hanging  over  the  fire-place. 
It  was  the  last  piece  of  needlework  that 
Mrs.  Foster  had  done,  and  represented 
a  tomb  beneath  a  willow  tree,  over 
which  a  female  form  was  bending  with 
a  very  sorrowful  expression.  There  was 
no  name  upon  the  monument,  but  a 
branch  of  a  rose  tree  with  four  buds 
broken  off,  and  the  two  blossoms  which 
were  standing  had  a  yellow  and  withered 
appearance.  A  harp  stood  in  the  corner 
of  the  room,  but  three  of  the  strings 
were  broken,  and  the  gilt  which  orna 
mented  the  frame  was  tarnished  by  damp 
ness  and  want  of  care. 

"What  a  gloomy  looking  place!"  ex 
claimed  Mary,  when  she  had  completed 
her  survey.  "  Pray  take  us  to  ride  with 
Mrs.  Foster,  for  I  shall  die  if  I  have  to 
stay  here  with  that  prosy  little  Comfort." 

"Why   did  you  come,  ,Mary?"  asked 


156  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

her  mother,  in  a  displeased  tone.  "You 
knew  that  Mrs.  Foster  had  been  an  in 
valid  for  many  years,  and  that  your  only 
amusement  would  be  the  society  of  her 
dear  little  girl." 

""Well,  it  was  very  foolish  in  me," 
replied  Mary,  pouting,  "but  I  was  anx 
ious  to  see  what  kind  of  a  place  that 
queer  young  one  came  out  of.  I  can't 
imagine,  mother,  what  makes  you  want 
us  to  associate  with  such  people." 

Mrs.  Davis  did  not  take  any  notice  of 
the  impertinent  tone  in  which  those  words 
were  spoken,,  but  replied  in  rather  a  sad 
voice, — 

"My  reason  is,  Mary,  because  I  think 
you  mav^,  perhaps,  learn  from  that  sweet 
child  to  behave  in  such  a  way  as  to  be 
some  comfort  to  your  mother." 

Eveline  had  said- nothing,  but  she,  too, 
had  been  thinking  that  it  would  be 
dreadful  to  live  in  such  a  dull,  quiet 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  157 

place.  The  manner  in  which  her  mother 
spoke,  touched  her  heart,  and  going  to 
her  side,  she  said,  soothingly, — 

"  I  will  try,  mama,  and  learn  to  be 
better.  If  Mary  don't  wish  to  stay  here 
while  you  are  out  with  Mrs.  Foster,  I 
shall  not  mind  her  going'at  all." 

11  But  I  should,  very  much,"  replied 
Mrs.  Davis,  "for  she  would  be  sure  to 
hurt  Mrs.  Foster's  feelings  by  some  rude 
remark.  Now  that  she  has  come,  she 
must  do  as  I  wish,  and  I  shall  be  ex 
tremely  displeased  if  she  does  anything 
to  pain  her  little  friend.  At  this  moment 
a  light  step  was  heard  on  the  stairs,  and 
then  a  fairy-like  form  sprang  into  the 
room,  and  Comfort  flew  from  one  to  the 
other,  exclaiming, — 

"  I  am  so  glad  you  have  come.  Mama 
is  better,  Mrs,  Davis,  and  she  thinks  that 
she  will  be  able  to  go  with  you.  Fanny 
is  dressing  her,  and  then  she  and  Jane 

14  *  T 


158  OUR   LITTLE   COMFOKT. 

will  bring  her  down1  stairs  and  put  "her 
in  tbe  carriage,  so  she  won't  trouble 
you  to  come  up." 

"I  am  delighted  to  hear  it,"  replied 
Mrs.  Davis,  "and  I  am  going  to  leave 
Mary  and  Eveline  with  you  while  she 
is  gone,  if  you  would  like  their  com 
pany." 

"  Oh,  that  will  be  so  nice,  won't  it, 
Eveline?"  exclaimed  Comfort.  "We  can 
play  in  mama's  room,  and  I  have  wanted 
to  see  you  so  much.  Do  you  like  cats 
and  chickens?"  she  added,  turning  to 
Mary,  who  looked  as  disagreeable  as 
she  well  could. 

"  I  like  cats  in  the  cellar,  to  kill  rats, 
and  chickens  on  the  table  to  eat,"  she 
replied,  in  a  tone  that  was  barely  civil. 

Comfort  was  so  kind  herself  that  she 
never  dreamed  that  this  could  be  said 
to  annoy  her,  and  answered,  merrily, — 

"Whajt  a  funny,  taste!     I  should  not 


OUR   LITTLE   COMFOKT.  159; 

like  my  cat,  Eosa,  at  all,  if  I  saw  her 
eating  up  a  pretty  little  mouse,  and 
Toppy  is  much  more  beautiful  with  his 
white  crest-  on  his  head  than  he  would 
,be  roasted  for  dinner.  But  won't  you 
excuse  me  while  I  run  and  help  mama 
down?" 

Mrs.  Davis  smiled  at  the  ideU  of  Com 
fort's  being  any  assistance,  but  the  little 
girl  felt  as  if  she  was  much  older  and 
stronger  than  she  really  was,  and  offered 
to  take  hold  of  the  arm-chair,  in  which 
she  found  her  mother  seated,  so  as  to 
help  Fanny  and  Jane. 

"  Eun  away,  darling,"  said  Mrs.  Foster, 
"  I  am  afraid  you  will  get  knocked  over, 
yourself.  Get  me  my  work-bag  out  of 
the  drawer,  at  the  bottom  of  the  bureau, 
and  put  a  pocket  handkerchief  and  my 
bottle  of  salts  in  it ;  and  then  take  my 
air-pillow  down  stairs,  for  that  is  light 
enough  for  you  to  carry." 


160  OUR   LITTLE   COMFORT. 

Comfort  was  pleased  to  be  thus  made 
of  use,  and  stood  at  the  bottom  of  the 
'  stairs,  holding  her  mother's  pillow  when 
the  invalid  arrived  there  in  safety. 

Mary  and  Eveline  Davis  ran  out  in 
the  hall,  for  they  were  very  anxious  to 
see  the  mama  that  Comfort  was  talking 
about,  but  her  pale  face  was  hidden  by 
a  thick  green  veil,  and  they  only  saw  a 
very  old-fashioned  black  bonnet,  and  a 
heap  of  grayish-black  clothes,  carried 
between  a  fat,  untidy-looking  cook,  and 
the  equally  uncouth  nurse. 

"So  that's  your  mother?"  said  Mary, 
in  a  contemptuous  tone,  as  Mrs.  Foster 
was  borne  out  into  the  yard,  whither 
Mrs.  Davis  followed  her. 

The  tone  in  which  these  words  were 
spoken,  could  not  escape  even  Comfort's 
unsuspecting  ear.  She  turned  quickly 
round,  and  looked  in  Mary's  face,  with 
a  mingled  expression  of  wonder  and  re- 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  161 

preach,  and  the  tears  filled  her  soft  eyes 
as  she  answered,  mildly, — 

"  Yes  !  that  is  my  mother,  my  blessed 
mother!" 

The  heartfelt  love  with  which  these 
words  were  uttered,  touched  Eveline's 
feelings.  She  put  both  arms  around 
Comfort's  neck,  and  whispered  to  her, — 

"I  know  she  is  a  dear  sweet  woman 
though  we  couldn't  see  her  face,  and  I 
wish  she  would  teach  me  to  be  just  like 
you." 

"  Oh  it  wouldn't  do  to  have  two  alike," 
replied  Comfort,  the  smile  coming  back 
to  the  face,  "you  know  there  are  not 
ever  two  leaves  alike.  Did  you  ever  try 
to  find  them,  Mary  ?" 

"  No  !"  said  Mary,  who  was  a  little  sub 
dued  by  the  mild  reproach  conveyed  in 
the  answer  which  Comfort  had  made  to 
her  last  rude  remark.  "  I  am  sure, 
though,  that  I  have  seen  a  great  many 

14* 


162  OUR  LITTLE  COMFOET. 

leaves  in  which  there  was  not  the  least 
difference.  I  will  show  you  two  in  a 
moment." 

The  children  then  ran  out  in  the  yard, 
and  hunted  under  the  poplars  for  a  long 
time,  to  find  two  leaves  that  were  pre 
cisely  similar,  but  their  search  was  vain. 
When  the  shape  and  color  was  alike, 
the  little  thread-like  frame-work  of  the 
leaves  was  different,  so  they  gave  up  in 
despair,  and  went  to  looking  for  four- 
leaved  clover.  While  thus  engaged, 
Comfort's  pretty  cat  came  purring  after 
her  mistress.  The  little  girl  took  her 
up  in  her  arms,  and  said  triumphantly, — 

"Now  look  at  her,  Mary,  and  see  if 
you  don't  think  her  mouth  is  too  white 
and  sweet  to  be  eating  rats  and  mice  ?" 

"  That  is  what  she  was  made  for,"  re 
plied  Mary,  scarcely  noticing  the  graceful 
animal,  but  Eveline  smoothed  her  soft 
fur,  and  said  she  had  never  seen  such  a 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  163 

pretty  cat,  and  that  she  guessed  she  wa? 
a  queen,  and  not  meant  to  live  like 
common  cats. 

The  sun  was  getting  so  warm,  that  it 
drove  the  little  ones  into  the  house,  and 
then  Comfort  took  them  up  into  her. 
mother's  room,  which  she  thought  was 
such  a  delightful  place.  She  asked  Mary 
if  she  would  like  to  play  with  her  dis 
sected  map,  but  the  discontented  visitor 
wished  to  do  nothing  that  would  please 
her  kind  entertainer.  She  sat  sulkily 
staring  around  the  room,  excepting  when 
she  got  up  and  examined  some  little 
article  which  was  lying  on  the  bureau 
or  table,  which  she  laid  down  again 
with  a  most  contemptuous  expression. 

Comfort  began  to  think  that  Mary 
was  tired,  and  wanted  to  be  let  alone,  so 
she  turned  her  attention  to  Eveline,  and 
then  they  were  very  happy  together. 
Eveline  was  amused  with  the  description 


164  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

Comfort  gave  of  the  way  that  she  spent 
her  mornings,  and  when  she  heard  that 
she  could  write,  proposed  that  they 
should  open  a  correspondence. 

"  Your  papa  will  bring  your  letters  to 
town  and  give  them  to  me,  and  I  will 
send  an  answer  in  the  same  way.  Won't 
that  be  nice  ?" 

Comfort  thought  it  would  be  very  nice 
indeed,  and  almost  the  same  as  if  they 
lived  together.  She  told  Eveline  about 
her  little  sister,  and  how  often  she  had 
wished  for  some  one  to  play  with  and 
to  talk  to,  and  that  now,  she  should  never 
feel  lonely.  • 

"But  no,"  she  added,  "I  don't  really 
feel  lonely  ever,  for  mama  is  such  pleas 
ant  company ;  only  sometimes  when  she 
is  asleep,  or  wants  to  be  still,  and  papa 
is  not  at  home,  then  I  wish  I  had  a  little 
sister." 

By  and   by  the  conversation    turned 


OUK  LITTLE  COMFORT.  165 

upon  the  catechising,  and  Eveline  said, — 

"How  dared  you  speak  up  so  to  the 
minister?  I  was  frightened  almost  to 
death,  when  it  came  my  turn  to  answer." 

"What  were  you  afraid  of?"  asked 
Comfort,  in  surprise. 

11  Why  all  the  people  who  were  looking 
on,  and  heard  us;  were  you  not  afraid 
of  them?" 

"Oh,  no!"  answered  Comfort;  "I 
never  thought  about  there  being  any 
body  in  church  but  the  clergyman  and 
ourselves;  I  mean  any  human  beings,  for 
I  felt  as  if  our  heavenly  Father  was  in 
our  midst,  and  hearing  every  answer." 

"  I  am  sure  that  would  have  frightened 
me,"  replied  Eveline.  "I  can't  imagine 
how  you  can  be  so  bright  and  happy, 
when  you  think  so  much  about  serious 
things.  Sometimes,  at  night,  after  I  go 
to  bed,  it  comes  into  my  head  that  God 
is  everywhere,  and  it  makes  me  so  miser- 


166  OUE  LITTLE  COMFOET. 

able  that  I  get  up  and  call  Hannah  to 
come  and  sit' by  me  till  I  fall  asleep." 

"  I  am  so  sorry  for  you,"  said'  Comfort, 
in  a  very  sad  tone.  "  Anybody  must 
be  so  unhappy  that  don't  like  to  think 
that  God  is  with  them,  for  you  know 
we  can't  get  out  of  His  sight  for  a  single, 
moment." 

"  Oh !  don't  say  so,"  said  Eveline, 
closing  her  eyes,  as  if  to  shut  out  her 
Creator  from  her  thoughts ;  "I  can't 
bear  to  think  of  it." 

"But,  dear  Eveline,"  replied  Comfort, 
soothingly,  "why  do  you  feel  so  about 
our  best  and  kindest  Friend  ?  He  loves 
us  better  than  our  mothers,  and  does 
everything  to  make  us  happy." 

"But  I  can't  imagine  anybody  that  I 
have  never  seen,  and  love  them,"  said 
Eveline.  "  I  know  how  mama  looks, 
but  I  don't  know  what  God  is  like,  and 
I  am  so  afraid  of  Him," 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  167 

"Don't  you  remember,"  said  Comfort, 
earnestly,  "that  our  Blessed  Saviour  is 
God,  and  that  He  became  man  ?  Can't 
you  imagine  a  man  like  our  Saviour, 
looking  sweeter  and  kinder  than  any 
man  you  ever  saw?  That's  the  way 
I  do  when  I  get  puzzled,  and  now  I 
always  see  the  same  face,  and,  oh,  it 
is  so  beautiful !"  and  Comfort's  eyes 
grew  bright  as  if  the  vision  of  her  Sa 
viour  was  present  in  all  its  loveliness 
and  sacredness. 

Mary,  who  had  been,  listening  to  the 
conversation,  though  she  pretended  not 
to  hear  it,  was  astonished  at  the  expres 
sion  of  the  little  girl's  face,  and  wondered 
why  it  was  that  s"he  was  so  different 
from  all  the  children  she  had  ever 
known. 

There  was  a  moment  of  silence,  in 
which  Comfort  and  Eveline  both  ap 
peared  to  be  thinking  deeply,  and  then 


168  OUK  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

Comfort  said,  very  earnestly,  to  her  dear 
companion, — 

"Dear  Eveline,  I  have  thought  of 
the  reason  why  you  may  be  so  troubled. 
The  Bible  says  'the  pure  in  heart  shall 
see  God.'  Perhaps  if  you  were  to  ask 
Him  to  make  your  heart  pure,  by  and 
by  you  would  feel  that  He  was  near, 
and  begin  to  see  Him  as  He  is ;  I  mean 
He  would  come  before  you  as  a  dear, 
kind  Friend,  who  loves  you,  and  then 
you  would  never  be  tired  of  thinking 
of  Him." 

"I  never  said  any  such  prayer,"  re 
plied  Eveline.  "There  is  not  any  such 
in  our  little  book." 

"Well,  can't  you  say  to  our  heavenly 
Father,  ( Please  to  give  me  *  a  pure 
heart?'  That  is  what  I  say  every 
night." 

"  I  don't  know ;  I  never  said  a  prayer 
that  was  not  in  a  book,"  said  Evelfne, 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  169 

despondingly.  "But  couldn't  you  say 
it  for  me?" 

"  Oh  yes,  I  will,  every  night,  but  that 
won't  do  any  good,  unless  you  say  it 
yourself  too.  Do  try,  Eveline." 

The  sound  of  carriage  wheels  was  now 
heard,  and  the  children  ran  down  stairs 
to  meet  their  parents.  As  Mrs.  Foster 
was  carried  back  to  her  room,  she  lifted 
up  her  veil,  and  when  Eveline  saw  her 
kind,  sweet  face,  she  did  not  wonder 
that  Comfort  loved  her  so  dearly.  Mary 
looked  away,  for  she  was  ashamed  of 
herself  and  displeased  with  every  one 
else. 

Mrs.  Davis,  did  not  enter  the  house, 
but  sent  for  the  children  to  come  out 
to  her,  so  Mary  bade  Comfort  a  hasty 
good-bye,  and  Eveline  an  affectionate 
one,  and  then  they  all  drove  back  to 
Granville. 

15 


170  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

ONE  morning,  in  the  latter  part  of 
October,  after  her  father  had  gone  to 
town,  Comfort  was  almost  sure, that  she 
heard  Fanny  making  up  a  fire  in  the 
parlor.  She  ran  to  see  if  her  ears  had 
not  deceived  her,  but  no,  there  were  the 
blazing  hickory  logs,  making  the  whole 
apartment  look  cheerful. 

On  asking  what  was  going  to  happen, 
the  little  girl  was  told  that  her  father 
had  ordered  the  fire,  and  wanted  the 
room  put  in  order,  because  Mrs.  Foster 
was  coming  down  stairs  in  the  middle 
of  the  day.  Comfort  was  running  up, 
immediately,  to  express  her  delight  at 
this  information,  to  her  mother,  but  the 
nurse  stopped  her,  saying  that  her  mis- 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  171 

tress  was  taking  another  nap,  so  as  to 
feel  strong  enough  for  the  exertion. 
Comfort  then  wanted  to  know  if  she 
could  not  do  something  to  get  the  room 
ready,  and  Fanny  gave  her  a  hawk's 
wing,  which  she  used  for  a  duster,  to 
brush  off  the  chairs  and  table.  A  'few 
moments  afterwards  a  wagon  stopped  at 
the  door,  and  three  men  came  in  the 
yard,  carrying  a  very  pretty  couch  which 
Fanny  told  them  they  were  to  set  down 
in  the  parlor.  Then  they  went  back  to 
the  wagon  for  a  large  stuffed  rocking- 
chair,  which  they  placed  before  the 
cheerful  fire,  and  again  returned  with 
a  great  flat  box,  which  was  placed  in 
the  hall  without  being  opened.  Fanny 
thought  that  this  was  the  last  thing  to 
come  in,  and  was  shutting  the  front 
door  after  the  men,  when  one  of  them 
came  back  with  a  little  low  chair,  just 
like  the  larger  one,  which  Comfort  was 


172  OUR  LITTLE  COMFOET. 

sure  was  meant  for  herself,  so  she  had 
it  put  close  to  the  one  that  she  knew 
was  for  her  mother. 

It  seemed  •  as  if  wonders  were  never 
to  cease,  that  morning,  for  the  wagon 
had  hardly  driven  away  before  the  little 
girl  saw  her  father  coming  in  the  gate 
with  a  plain  looking  man  who  had  a 
small  round  parcel  in  his  hand.  Both 
came  right  into  the  parlor,  and  then  Mr. 
Foster  pointed  to  the  harp  and  said, 
"  There  is  the  instrument ;  put  it  in  as 
good  order  as  you  can,"  and  the  stranger 
undid  the -package,  and  took  out  a  roll 
of  wires,  of  different  sizes,  and  began 
comparing  them  with  the  harp-strings 
which  were  broken.  Comfort  stood  look 
ing  on  with  much  interest  while  this 
was  going  forward,  and  was  delighted 
with  the  sound  when  the  instrument 
was  tuned. 

"Now,"  said  her  father,  after  telling 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  173 

Fanny  where  the  couch  was  to  be  placed, 
"run  and  get  me  a  hammer,  and  you 
shall  see  what  is  in  that  box,  my  little 
daughter." 

The  hammer  was  brought  in  an  in 
stant,  and  then  Mr.  Foster  opened  the 
box  and  took  out  two  large  engravings, 
which  were  prettily  framed.  Comfort 
thought  that  she  had  never  seen  such 
pretty  pictures,  and  could  hardly  admire 
them  enough.  One  represented  the  res 
urrection  of  our  Saviour,  and  the  angels 
were  standing  by  His  empty  tomb,  while 
He  was  pictured  as  just  speaking  to 
Mary.  Comfort  felt  as  if  she  almost 
heard  Him  calling  her  name,  and  she 
thought  the  words  under  the  picture 
would  be  so  comforting  to  her  mother, 
for  they  were,  "  Even  so,  them  that  sleep 
in  Jesus  will  God  bring  with  Him." 

The  other  picture  represented  a  Chris 
tian  family  as  just  risen  from  the  tomb, 

15* 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFOET. 

and  about  to  be  caught  up  in  the  clouds. 
Comfort  did  not  know  whether  she  liked 
the  faces  of  the  children,  or  the  cherubs 
who  were  waiting  to  receive  them,  best, 
and  she  thought  that  all  of  them  looked 
as  if  they  might  be  her  lost  sisters.  She 
admired  equally  the  inscription,  which 
was,  "Here  am  I  and  the  children  that 
God  has  given  me." 

When  these  pictures  were  unpacked, 
and  his  little  daughter  had  looked  at 
them  as  long  as  she  wished,  Mr.  Foster 
went  into  the  parlor,  and  standing  up  in 
a  high  chair,  took  down  the  piece  of 
needlework  over  the  fire  place,  which 
Comfort  had  always  so  much  admired. 
She  wondered  why  he  did  this,  but  his 
face  was  so  sad  as  he  looked  at  the 
broken  rose-buds  on  the  tomb-stone, 
that  she  did  not  like  to  ask  any  ques 
tions.  He  hung  one  of  the  other  pictures 
in  its  place,  and  the  mate  to  it  over  the 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  175 

table  opposite,  and  then  carried  that 
which  he  had  taken  down  up  into  the 
garret,  and  put  it  into  the  flat  box  which 
Fanny  brought  up  from  the  hall.  Com 
fort  followed  her  father  thither,  and  sat 
by  while  he  unpacked  some  books  which 
she  had  never  seen  before,  and  he  let 
her  take  two  or  three  little  ones  down 
stairs,  while  he  carried  several  that  were 
larger,  and  put  them  on  the  empty  table. 
This  gave  the  room  quite  an  inhabited 
air,  and  both  Mr.  Foster  and  Comfort 
looked  round  it  with  great  satisfaction, 

"  Don't  you  think  it  wants  some  flow 
ers  ?"  said  Comfort,  or,  rather,  she  made 
signs  to  that  effect.  Her  father  bowed, 
and  the  little  girl  went  out  in  the  yard 
to  collect  some  of  the  few  blossoms  that 
remained,  but  the  only  ones  that  suited 
her  were  two  roses  with  a  bud  between 
them,  and  these  she  placed  in  a  wine 
glass  on  the  table,  and  said  they  were 


176  OUK  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

her  father  and  mother  and  herself.  Then 
she  gathered  some  large,  bright-colored 
leaves  and  tall  grasses,  and  made  them 
into  bunches  which  she  asked  her  father 
to  put  in  the  old  china  vases  on  each 
side  of  the  mantel-piece,  and  now  she 
thought  the  room  was  perfectly  beautiful. 

Mr.  Foster  had  hardly  done  admiring 
his  morning's  work  when  Fanny  came 
to  say  that  her  mistress  was  ready  to 
come  down.  He  went  up  stairs  directly, 
and  taking  her  little  delicate  form  in  his 
arms,  carried  her  down  into  the  parlor 
as  easily  as  if  she  had  been  a  baby,  and 
seated  her  in  the  comfortable  rocking- 
chair. 

Comfort  drew  her  little  chair  close  up 
to  her  mother's  side,  and  took  her  hand 
in  both  her  own,  but  said  nothing,  for 
something '  told  her  that  it  was  best  to 
be  silent. 

After  looking  around  the  room  with 


OUR   LITTLE   COMFORT.  177 

a  pleased,  surprised  air,  Mrs.  Foster  lifted 
her  eyes  to  the  place  where,  her  last  work 
was  accustomed  to  hang,  and  as  she  saw 
the  picture  which  had  .replaced  it,  and 
read  the  words,  "Even  so,  them  that 
sleep  in  Jesus  shall  God  bring  with 
Him,"  her  eyes  filled  with  tears.  Still, 
she  did  not  look  unhappy  as  she  turned 
to  her  husband,  who.  stood  beside  her 
chair,  and  said, 

"  It  is  better  to  look  at  the  resurrection 
than  the  tomb ;  I  have  one  rose-bud  left." 

Comfort  understood,  then,  why  her 
father  had  made  the  change,  and  she 
was  glad  that  he  thought  of  it.  She 
wished  that  Mary  Davis  could  see  her 
mother,  as  she  sat  there,  for  she  thought 
that  Marjf  could  not -help  owning  that 
she  was  the  sweetest-looking  lady  in  the 
world. 

After  a  little  while,  Mrs.  Foster  was 
tired,  so  she  lay  .down  on  the  couch, 


178  OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT. 

which  she  said  was  very  easy  and  com 
fortable,  and  then  the  little  girl  drew  her 
chair  up  to  it,  and  taking  out  her  Testa 
ment,  read  the  Lesson  for  the  day,  as 
she  was  accustomed  to  do  in  her  mother's 
chamber.  When  she  had  done,  Mrs. 
Foster  beckoned  to  her  husband  to  come 
to  her,  and  wrote  on  his  hand  for  some 
minutes,  and  then  he  went  out  of  the 
room.  When  he  came  back,  he  brought 
a  little  bureau,  which  Comfort  had  never 
seen,  and  which  appeared  as  if  it  were 
intended  for  a  doll.  His  eyes  looked  as 
if  he  had  been  shedding  tears,  but  he 
tried  to  speak  cheerfully,  as  he  said, — 

"  Here  it  is,  my  love ;  are  you  sure 
that  you  are  quite  strong  enough  to  open 
it?"  .  • 

Mrs.  Foster  replied,  that  she  did  not 
think  it  would  overcome  her  now,  and 
then  she  took  the  key,  and  unlocking  the 
upper  drawer,  took  out  a  little  picture- 


*>  • 

OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  179 

book  that  had  once  been  Harry's,  and  a 
paper  containing  a  curl  of  his  hair,  which 
was  just  the  color  of  Comfort's.  The 
bereaved  mother  was  not  as  strong  as  she 
thought,  for  the  moment  that  she  touched 
these  mementoes,  the  tears  gushed  to  her 
eves,  and  she  trembled  all  over. 

Comfort  smoothed  her  hair  gently,  and 
then  said,  in  a  low,  sweet  voice, — 

"  Mama,  would  it  make  you  feel  badly 
to  see  the  rattle-box  that  I  had  when  I 
was  a  baby  ?" 

Mrs.  Foster  was  surprised  at  the  ques 
tion. 

"•No,  my  child,"  she  answered,  sadly. 

•"  Well,  mama,"  continued  Comfort,  "do 
you  think  Harry  and  Kate  want  these 
things  any  more  now,  than  I "  do  my 
rattle-box.  If  they  have  plenty  of  pretty 
things  in  heaven,  what  makes  you  cry 
when  you  look  at  what  they  have  left 
behind  them  ?" 


180  OUK  LITTLE   COMFORT. 

The  simple  reasoning  of  the  child,  and 
the  remembrance  of  the  treasure  that  she 
had  left,  consoled  the  mourner,  and  she 
said,  fondly, — 

"You  are  a  comfort  indeed!  why 
should  I  weep  when  I  see  these  trifles  £•" 

She  then  opened  the  next  drawer,  and 
took  from  it  a  little  cap  which  was  very 
yellow  from  having  lain  there  so  long. 

"This,"  she  said,  "was  what  my  little 
Susan  wore  the  day  that  she  was  chris 
tened.  She  exchanged  it,  an  hour  after 
wards,  for  an  angel's  crown.  You  have 
never  heard  me  speak  much  of  her,  for 
she  was  only  six  weeks  old  when  she 
was  taken  from  me,  and'  that  was  my 
last  affliction." 

Comfort  took  the  cap  on  her  little  hand 
and  tried  to  imagine  the  face  that  had 
looked  out  from  under  it,  but  she  could 
only  see  that  of  the  baby  in  the  picture 
of  the  risen  Christian  family. 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFOET.  181 

"These  little  cups,"  said  Mrs.  Foster, 
handing  her  daughter  two  silver,  cups 
like  her  own,  "  were  given  to  Harry  and 
Kate  when  they  were  three  years  old." 

Comfort  read  the  names  engraved  upon 
them,  and  wondered  to  herself  how  any 
one  could  value  such  things  highly,  when 
they  might  so  soon  have  to  leave  them. 

.The  last  thing  that  \Mrs.  Foster  took 
out  of  the  bureau,  was  a  little  box,  con 
taining  a  child's  ring,  with  one  pearl  set 
in  it. 

"This,"  she  said,  "was  given  to  Mary 
by  your  aunt,  but  she  never  lived  to  wear 
it.  Try  it  on  and  see  if  it  is  large  enough 
for  you." 

Comfort  found  that  the  ring  fitted  her, 
but  she  felt  no  wish  to  wear  it  till  her 
mother  said, — 

"Keep  it,  my  dear,  and  when  you 
look  at  it,  remember  always  to  whom  it 

belonged,  and  what  is  necessary  to  pre- 
16 


182  OUK  LITTLE   COMFORT. 

pare  you  to  rejoin  your  brothers  and 
sisters  in  heaven.  You  must  take  it  off 
when  you  wash  your  hands,  or  the  pearl 
will  become  dim,  and  as  you  do  so,  think 
how  much  care  is  also  necessary  lest  your 
soul  should  likewise  grow  impure." 

Then  Comfort  pressed  the  ring  to  her 
lips,  and  promised  never  to  forget  why 
she  wore  it. 

Mrs.  Foster  now  locked  up  the  bureau 
again,  and  her  husband  carried  it  back 
to  the  large  trunk  in  the  spare  room, 
where  it  had  been  kept  for  so  many 
years. 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.  183 


CHAPTER  X. 

IN  a  few  weeks,  Mrs.  Foster  was  able 
to  go  all  around  the  house,  which  speedily 
changed  its  appearance.  The  dining- 
room  became  really  pleasant,  and  Com 
fort  enjoyed  every  meal,  because  her 
mother  was  able  to  sit  "at  the  table,  and 
the  cook  was  now  a  nice,  tidy  woman, 
with  her  kitchen  as  neat  as  herself. 

The  crib  in  which  Comfort  had  slept 
ever  since  she  was  a  baby,  was  now  quite 
too  small  for  her,  and  Mrs.  Foster  asked 
her  little  daughter  whether  she  would 
feel  afraid  to  sleep  in  a  room  by  herself. 
Comfort  looked  surprised  at  the  question 
from  'her  mama,  who  had  always  taught 
her  that  there  was  nothing  in  the  world 
but  sin  which  ought  to  be  feared.  "I 


I 

184  OUR- LITTLE  COMFORT. 

did  not  mean  to  ask  whether  you  would 
be  afraid,  exactly,  but  I  thought  perhaps 
you 'might  be  lonely  at  night,"  said  her 
mother,  in  reply  to  the  inquiring  glance 
of  the  child.  The  troubled  expression 
passed  away  from  Comfort's  face,  and 
she  replied,  "  Oh,  no,  mama.  You  know 
I  never  speak  after  I  have  gone  to  bed 
for  the  night,  now,  and  I  think  I  shall 
like  to  feel  that  I  am  quite  alone  with 
my  heavenly  Father.  I  know  that  He 
will  not  let  anything  hurt  me." 

Mrs.  Foster  did  not  feel  easy  to  have 
her  little  girl  out  of  her  sight,  but  the 
room  in  which  she  thought  of  placing 
her  was  between  her  own  and  that  occu 
pied  by  Fanny,  and  the  walls  were  so 
thin  that  .the  least  noise  could  be  heard 
through  j  them, '  so  that  she .  would  really 
be  as  safe  as  if /: she  were  in  her  chamber. 

The  kind  mother  took  a  great  deal  of 
pleasure  in  fitting  up  this  little  apartment 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  185 

to  please  Comfort,  who  had  shown,  from 
her  infancy,  a  great  love   of  order.     A 
shade,  with  a  pretty  boquet   of  flowers 
painted  upon  it,  was  placed  at  the  only 
window,  and  Mr.  Foster  bought  a  light 
bedstead,   to    stand    in    one   corner,   for 
which  Fanny  made  a  neat  white  spread, 
and  the  toilet  was  covered  with  the  same 
material.     There  were  only  three   chairs 
in  the  room,  and  one  of  them  was  a  small 
one,  but  Comfort  said  as  long  as  she  had 
a  seat  for  her  father  and  mother  it  was  no 
matter,  and  that  if  she  ever  had  any  more 
company,  her  bed  would  do  for  a  sofa. 
Beside  the  white  toilet,  «there  was  another 
table  in  the  room,   and  on  this  stood  a 
little   writing  desk,   which   was    one   of 
Comfort's  greatest  treasures.     It  had  been 
her  sister   Kate's,    and   ner   mother  had 
given  it  to  her  on  the  day  when  she  was 
seven  years  old.     It  was  not  an  expen 
sive  one,  but  very  convenient,  and  beside 

16* 


186  OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT. 

it  there  lay  two  blank  books  with  which 
her  father  had  presented  her  at  the  same 
time.  One  of  these  was  a  journal  book 
in  which  she  wrote  every  day,  and  in  the 
other  she  put  down  the  texts  from  the 
morning  lessons  which  she  most  wished 
to  impress  upon  her  mind.  Her  hand 
writing  was  hardly  formed,  and  the  let 
ters  were  large  and  irregular,  but*  there 
was  not  a  blot  in  either  of  these  books, 
although  she  did  not  show  them  even 
to  her  mother.  Many  faults  were  men 
tioned  in  the  journal  to  which  we  have 
not  alluded,  for  Comfort  knew  her  own 
heart,  and  the  actions  which  appeared 
so  right  and  easy  to  perform,  often  cost 
a  struggle  within. 

When  Comfort  first  took  possession 
of  her  new  room,  she  had  some  very 
solemn  thoughts.  Beside  that  bed  she 
was  to  present  her  morning  and  even 
ing  petitions  to  her  heavenly  Father, 


OUK  LITTLE   COMFORT.  187 

and  every  night  to  lay  down  to  sleep 
watched  only  by  His  untiring  eye.  She 
was  a  little  girl  now,  but  every  year 
would  bring  new  duties,  and  who  knew 
what  would  take  place  in  that  room? 
How  sweet  and  comfortable  it  looked! 
"Was  she  grateful  enough  to  her '  kind 
parents,  and  to  Him  who  had  put  it  in 
their  hearts  to  love  her  so  dearly?  How 
could  she  make  them  more  happy? 
Perhaps  she  might  go  from  this  little 
room  to  that  home  to  which  'she  looked 
forward  with  pleasure.  Would  the  angel 
come  thither  to  call  her  to  the  skies? 
These  were  deep  thoughts  for  such  a 
little  girl,  but  Comfort,  had  drunk  from 
the  fountain  of  all  wisdom.  She  sought 
God  early,  and  she  found  Him.  Living 
always  in  His  presence,  her  mind  out 
grew  her  years,  and,  while  most  childlike 
in  manners,  her  thoughts  were  often 
those  of  a  much  riper  age.  She  now 


188  OUK   LITTLE   COMFORT. 

knelt  by  her  bed  with  the:  same  simple 
faith  that  she  had  always  felt  in  her 
merciful  Creator,  and  asked  His  aid  that 
she  might  not  think,  say,  or  do  anything1 
in  that  room  which'  cpuld  be  displeas 
ing  to.  Him.  Then  she  went  into  her 
mother's  .'chamber  to  undress,  and  her 
recent ;  serious  thoughts  gave  such  pe 
culiar  earnestness  to  her  young  face, 
that  her  mother  felt  a  sudden  dread  lest 
her  darling  was  ripening  for  the  skies. 
She  kissed  *her  with  unusual  tenderness, 
and  long  after  the  little  girl  was  asleep, 
a  fond  face  was  bending  over  her,  to  be 
sure  that  all  was  right. 

But,  although  Mrs.  Foster  was  able  to 
go  about  the  house,  which  was  thoroughly 
warmed  during  the  winter  by  a  large 
stove  in  the  hall,  she  did  not  dare  to 
venture  out  till  the  cold  weather  was 
over.  Comfort  took  a  long  walk,  every 
day,  with  Fanny,  and  when  the  snow 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  189 

came,  she  would  rub  it  on  her  cheeks 
till  they  blushed  like  roses. 

"Mama,"  she  said, "one  day,  "I  read 
the  text,  this  morning,  '  He  giveth  His 
snow  like  wool,'  and  "I  have  just  thought 
what  it  means.  Does  it  not  keep  the 
earth  warm,  just  as  the  wool  does  the 
sheep  who  wear  it?  How  good  it  is  in 
God  to  give  the  poor  naked  ground  such 
a  nice  white  coat!  I  would  like  to  see 
the  evergreens  at  Mrs.  Davis'  to-day,  for 
she  l^old  me  they  were  so  pretty  when 
they  were  covered  with  snow." 

Just  as  Comfort  uttered  this  wish,  there 
was  a  merry  sound  of  sleigh-bells  in  the 
distance,  and  very  soon  a  sleigh  with 
two  swift  horses  came  dashing  up  to  the 
door. 

"Oh,  mama,  mama,"  exclaimed  Com 
fort,  who  was  looking  out  the  parlor 
window,  "it  is  Eveline !  oh,  I  am  so 
glad." 


190  OTJK  LITTLE   COMFOET. 

The  little  girl  ran  to  tlie.  door,  but  she 
could  not  reach  the  knob,  so  she  had 
to  go  and  call  Fanny  to  let  Mrs.  Davis 
and  her  daughter  into  the  hall.  They 
were  all  bundled  up  in  cloaks  and  furs, 
and  did  not  like  to  go  into  the  parlor 
for  fear  that  their  cold  garments  might 
chill  Mrs,  Foster,  who  was  still  delicate, 
but  they  wanted  Comfort  to  ask  her 
mother  if  she  might  go  with  them  and 
take  a  short  sleigh-ride. 

The  child  was  so  delighted  that  she 
could  hardly  get  the  words  out,  and  her 
mother  said  yes,  immediately,  and  told 
her  to  go  and  get  Fanny  to  wrap  her  up 
warm.  Mrs.  Davis  said  there  were  plenty 
of  buffaloes,  'but  Comfort  did  not  know 
what  they  were,  and  she  asked  Fanny 
to  bring  her  mother's  cloak  out  to  the 
sleigh  and  wrap  it  round  her,  over  the 
gray  pelisse. 

"You    will  want    something    warmer 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  191 

over  your  head,  than  that  hat/'  said  Eve 
line.  "  See !  I  have  a  scarf  tied  under 
my  hood." 

"  I  have  not  any  other  hat,"  said  Com 
fort,  l<  but  perhaps  mama  will  let  me 
take  her  long  scarf  and  tie  it  all  round 
my  head."  She  ran  back  into  the  parlor 
to  ask  if  she  might  take  the  scarf,  which 
was  a  bright  led  one,  that  her  father 
had  brought  to  his  wife  at  Christmas. 
Mrs.  Foster  told  her  that  she  was  glad 
that  she  had  thought  of  it,  and  that  she 
had  better  put  on  a  pair  of  her  gloves 
over  her  own  little  woolen  ones.  As  she 
was  not  used  to  wading  in  such  deep 
snow,  and  had  no  Polish  boots  like  those 
which  Mrs.  Davis  and  Eveline  wore, 
Fanny  carried  her  in  her  arms  through 
the  yard  to  the  sleigh,  where  she  found 
not  only  Mary  Davis,  but  "Etta  Alston 
and  Anna  Lathrop.  Mrs.  Davis  would 
not  ask  Jane  Campbell  to  join  the  sleigh- 


192  OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT. 

ing  party,  because  she  was  so  disgusted 
with  her  manners  on  the  day  that  she 
was  at  Eveline's  fete,  that  she  made  up 
her  mind  that  that  should  be  the  last  in 
vitation  she  should  ever  receive  to  her 
house. 

Mary  Davis  did  not  greet  the  new 
comer  very  warmly,  but  the  other  little 
girls  were  delighted  to  see  her,  and  Mrs. 
Davis  told  her  to  sit  in  the  back  seat, 
between  Eveline  and  herself.  When 
they  were  all  comfortably  settled,  the 
horses  started  and  away  they  went,"  at  a 
rate  that  at  first  made  Comfort  quite  giddy. 
She  soon  got  used  to  the  motion  and 
then  it  was  delightful.  The  whole  earth 
looked  so  pure,  that  the  child  felt  as  if 
she  had  been  newly  created,  and  when 
they  came  to  a  wood  of  evergreens  all 
frosted  with  snow,  she  could  hardly  ex 
press  her  admiration. 

"  Oh,  what  a  beautiful  white  dress  the 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  193 

trees  have  on!"  she  exclaimed,  "and  they 
caught  it  coming  down  from  heaven. 
And  oh  !  look  at  the  icicles  hanging  from 
those  branches ;  how  they  sparkle !  I 
know  that  God  can  do  everything,  buf 
do  you  see,  Mrs.  Davis,  how  he  could 
make  anything  more  beautiful  ?" 

"I  certainly  cannot  imagine  a  more 
lovely  day,"  said  Mrs.  Davis,  but  as  she 
looked  at  the  animated  face  that  peeped 
out  from  the  folds  of  the  red  scarf,  she 
thought  that  the  most  beautiful  sight  in 
this  world  was  an  earnest,  affectionate 
child,  adoring  the  Giver  of  life,  and  of  all 
good  gifts. 

"  Oh,  I  have  wanted  to  see  you  much," 
whispered  Eveline ;  "I  could  not  tell  you 
half  I  wished  in  my  notes,  for  it  takes 
me  so  long  to  write.  Mama  would  not 
bring  me  to  see  you  because  she  thought 
that  Mary  did  not  behave  well  when  we 

were  last  here,  and  we  always  go  out 
tf 


194  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

together.  I  am  not  afraid  to  sleep  alone 
now." 

Comfort  grasped  the  hand  of  her  com 
panion,  and  looked  up  in  her  face,  with 
a  countenance  radiant  with  joy. 

"I  knew  it  would  be  so,"  she  said; 
"you  asked  for  what  I  told  you,  didn't 
you,  dear  Eveline?" 

"Yes,"  said  the  child,  bashfully,  for 
she  was  talking  about  something  which 
she  did  not  wish  any  one  else  to  hoar. 

"So  did  I,"  said  Comfort,  who  never 
imagined  that  there  was  any  reason  why 
people  wished  not  to  be  heard  when  they 
were  speaking  of  the  most  important  of 
all  subjects. 

"What  did  you  do?"  asked  Mrs.  Davis, 
who  was  struck  with  the  pleased  expres 
sion  of  her  little  companion. 

"I  asked  that  Eveline  might  have  a 
pure  heart,"  said  Comfort,  in  a  low,  sweet 
voice. 


OUK  LITTLE  COMFORT.  195 

Mrs.  Davis  could  not  speak  for  a  mo 
ment,  for  her  voice  was  choked  by  tears. 
"  God  bless  you,  my  child,"  she  said, 
at  last,  "He  heard  your  prayer,  and  is 
making  my  darling  Eveline  all  I  could 
wish." 


•> 


196  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE  winter  and  spring  had  passed 
away,  and  a  beautiful  Sunday  in  June 
was  drawing  to  a  close.  Mrs.  Foster — 
now  perfectly  well — stood  at  an  open 
window,  watching  Comfort,  who  was 
gathering  some  roses,  while  her  father 
walked  up  and  down  the  path  leading 
to  the  gate,  looking  *at  the  various  flow 
ers  which  adorned  "the  once  desolate 
yard.  No  passer-by  now  thought  it 
was  a  gloomy  place,  for,  although  the 
tall  brick  house  was  still  narrow  and 
stiff,  it  had  been  newly  painted,  and 
luxuriant  vines  half  concealed  its  ugli 
ness. 

"Marna,"  said  Comfort,  as  she  handed 
her  a  boquet  of  beautiful  roses,  "won't 


OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT.  197 

you  please  come  and  take  a  walk.  We 
shall  have  time  to  go-  to  the  wood  be 
hind  the  house,  before  sunset,  and  I 
know  papa  would  like  it." 

Mrs.  Foster  readily  consented  to  do 
what  her  darling  wished,  and  then  Com 
fort  ran  for  a  sunbonnet  and  shawl  for 
her  mother,  and  another  for  herself, 
although  she  carried  her  own  on  her 
arm. 

Mr.  Foster  thought  it  was  a  very 
pleasant  time  for  a  walk,  so  he  gave 
his  arm  to  his  wife,  and  they  passed 
through  the  gate,  with  Comfort  at  their 
side.  But  when  they  came  to  the  path 
which  led  to  the  wood,  the  little  girl 
ran  on  before  her  parents,  for  she  felt 
that  there  might  be  some  things  which 
they  would  like  to  say  to  each  other. 
A  week  before,  Mr.  Foster  had  been 
baptized,  and  his  daughter  thought  it 
strange  that  her  father  should  become 

17* 


198  OUK  LITTLE   COMFORT. 

<so  like  a  little  child,  but  she  was  glad, 
for  she  knew  that  of  such  was  the  king 
dom  of  heaven.  On  the  afternoon  of 
the  same  day  he  had  been  confirmed, 
and  when  the  Bishop  laid  his  hands 
upon  that  dear  head,  Comfort  could 
hardly  breathe,  and  her  lips  followed 
m  every  word  of  the  prayer,  "  Defend,  O 
Lord,  this  thy  servant  with  thy  heav 
enly  grace ;  that  he  may  Continue  thine 
for  ever ;  and  daily  increase  in  thy  Holy 
Spirit  more  and  more,  until  he  come 
unto  thine  everlasting  kingdom." 

Although  the  day  of  her  father's  con 
firmation  had  been  very  solemn  to  Com 
fort,  that  which  was  now  closing  was 
still  more  interesting,  for  she  had  seen 
both  her  parents  kneeling  side  by  sid® 
to  receive  the  holy  sacrament.  The 
little  girl  had  often  read  the  account  of 
the  Last  Supper  of  our  Lord,  and  how 
He  distributed  the  bread  and  wine  to 


OUR  LITTLE- COMFORT.  199 

His  disciples,  saying,  "Do  this  in  re 
membrance  of  me,"  and  now  she  wished 
that  she  were  old  enough  to  fulfil  the 
parting  command  of  her  dying  Saviour. 
As  the  clergyman  went  from  one  to  the 
other  of  the  communicants,  she  closed 
her  eyes,  and  imagined  that  Christ  Him 
self  was  passing  about  among  His  dis 
ciples,  speaking  those  words  of  love, 
"This  is  my  body  which  was  given  for 
you."  She  felt  as  if  something  was- 
going  on  between  Jesus  and  His  Church 
which  was  too  sacred  to  be  gazed  upon, 
and  involuntarily  turned  away  her  eyes 
from  those  who  were  retiring  from  the 
chancel.  When  her  father  and  mother 
came  back  to  the  pew,  she  quietly  left 
room  for  the  latter  to  pass  to  her  seat, 
and,  young  as  she  was,  she  could  under 
stand  why  her  mother's  eyes  were  filled 
with  tears.  The  same  quick  sense  of 
delicacy  now  made  her  keep  in  advance 


200  OUR  LITTLE   COMFORT. 

of  her  parents,  for  she  felt  that  there 
were  sweet  thoughts  which  they  might 
wish  to  enjoy  together,  after  their  first 
communion. 

The  sun  was  sinking  behind  the  hills, 
and  as  Comfort  watched  the  golden  glow 
in  the  west,  she  thought  that  such  might 
be  the  appearance  of  that  world  which 
would  need  no  sun,  because  the  Lord 
God  would  be  the  light  thereof.  Earth 
was  daily  becoming  more  pleasant  to 
the  Christian  child,  but  it  did  not  with 
draw  her  heart  from  heaven.  Every 
new  source  of  happiness  only  made  her 
more  sure  that  perfect  joy  was  laid  up 
in  store  for  those  who  should  be  for  ever 
with  the  Lord.  When  she  saw  her 
mother's  health  improving,  she  thought 
of  the  time  when  they  should  both 
dwell  in  that  blest  home  "  whose  in 
habitants  shall  no  more  say,  I  am  sick," 
and  the  friendship  of  Eveline  gave  her 


OUR  ilTTLE   COMFORT.    .  201 

sweet  anticipation  of  the  pleasure  that 
she  should  find  in  the  society  of  her 
sainted  sisters.  Every  flower  that  she 
plucked  on  earth  was  an  emblem  of  the 
immortal  ones  that  she  should  here 
after  gather  in  heavenly  fields,  and  was 
sweeter  for  the  association. 

And  so  Comfort  walked  on,  with  her 
unseen  Saviour  at  her  side,  and  her 
heart  filled  with  peace.  When  she 
reached  the  brow  of  the  hill  which  her 
father  and  mother  were  ascending,  she 
looked  around  for  a  seat,  and  having 
found  the  moss-covered  trunk  of  a  tree, 
she  threw  over  it  the  shawl  that  she 
had  been  carrying  on  her  arm. 

"Here,  mama,"  she  said,  "is  a  place 
for  you,  and  one  for  father  close  by  it. 
I  can  sit  down  at  your  feet." 

Mrs.  Foster  took  the  offered  seat,  but 
her  husband  said,  "It  will  not  do  for 
you  to  sit  there,  my  darling ;  the  ground 


202  OUR   LITTLE   COMFORT. 

may  be  damp.  I  can  hold  you,  though 
you  are  getting  to  be  quite  a  large  girl." 

Comfort  gladly  placed  herself  on  her 
father's  knee,  and  after  they  had  all  ad-- 
mired  the  sweet  sunset  sky,  she  said, 
"Oh,,  would  it  not  be  nice  to  have 
evening  prayers  here.  Father,  haven't 
you  got  your  Bible  with  you?  I  saw 
you  put  it  in  your  pocket  when  we 
came  out  of  church." 

x- 

"If'es,  my  love,"  he  replied,  "and  if 
your  mother  will  first  sing  a  hymn,  I 
will  read  a  chapter  in  it." 

Mrs.  Foster  immediately  commenced 
those  sweet  words, 

"  Softly  now  the  light  of  day 
Fades  upon  my  sight  away," 

in  which  Comfort  joined  with  much  taste 
and  feeling.  Mr.  Foster  could  not  hear 
the  pleasant  voices  of  his  wife  and  child, 
but  he  was  making  melody  in  his  heart, 


CUE  LITTLE   COMFORT.  203 

and  thinking  of  the  time  when  his  ear 
should  be  unstopped,  and  he  could  unite 
in  the  songs  of  heaven. 

As  the  music  died  away  in  the  dis 
tance,  Mr.  Foster  took  a  small  Bible  out 
of  his  pocket,  and-  opening  to  the  Old 
Testament,  read  the  history  of  Naaman 
the  Syfian. 

Comfort  had  often  heard  the  story 
before,  but  to-night  it  seemed  particu 
larly  interesting,  for  her  father  appeared 
to  feel  every  word  that  he  read.  When 
he  had  finished  the  chapter,  he  laid  his 
hand  on  his  daughter's  head,  and  asked, 
with  peculiar  emphasis,  "Do  you  not 
think,  my  love,  that  it  was  very  kind 
in  the  little  maiden  to  feel  so  much 
anxiety  for"  the  welfare  of  Naaman?" 

"Not  so  very,"  replied  Comfort,  "for 
if  she  knew  who  could'  cure  him,  how 
could  she  help  telling  him?" 

''But,"  asked  Mr.  Foster,  in  the  same 


204  OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT. 

earnest  tone,  "  do  you  not  think  that  she 
must  have  been  very  happy  to  know  that 
she  had  been  the  means  of  doing  so  much 
good?" 

"  Oh,  yes,  indeed,"  replied  Comfort, 
warmly,  but  she  could  not  understand 
why  her  father  asked  her  a  question  of 
this  kind. 

"But  suppose,"  continued  Mr.  Foster, 
"  that  RTaaman  had  been  her  father  in 
stead  of  her  master,  would  she  not  then 
have  had  reason  for  great  thankfulness?" 

A  sudden  perception  'of  her  father's 
meaning  now  glanced  through  Comfort's 
mind,  and  her  blue  eyes  were  fixed  with 
tearful  earnestness  upon  his  face,  while 
he  said,  "My  beloved  child,  do  you  re 
member  the  evening  when  you  sat  thus 
upon  my  knee,  and  pointed  at  the  picture 
of  Samuel  and  of  Jacob,  and  then  gave 
me  a  look  of  such  affectionate  entreaty? 
I  was  the  leper  then,  Comfort,  and  you 


OUR  LITTLE  COMFORT.        •     205 

were  the  little  maiden  who  pointed  out 
to  me  the  great  Physician." 

Comfort  could  not  speak,  but  she 
clasped  both  arms  around  her  father's 
neck  and  kissed  him  tenderly,  and  then 
she  laid  her  young,  fair  head  upon  his 
bosom,  and,  closing  her  eyes,  thanked 
her  heavenly  Father  for  his  unspeakable 
mercy. 

Mrs.  Foster  looked  at  the  pure,  sweet 
face  of  her  child,  as  she  was  thus  em 
ployed,  with  unutterable  love,  and  laid 
her  trembling  hand  upon  her  husband's 
arm  with  a  look  which  said,  "God  has 
blessed  us  indeed."  He  took  that  hand 
in  his  own  and  replied,  tenderly,  "  I  am 
deeply  indebted  to  your  untiring  devo 
tion  and  constant  prayers,  but  next  to 
you,  under  God,  I  owe  my  salvation  to 
the  earnest  faith  and  sweet  example  of 
our  dear  little  Comfort." 

18 


